“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
— Maya Angelou
Survival Tips
No matter what happens know that you are a survivor. You have made it through this far no matter what life has thrown at you and you are still going.
There is always a funny aspect to anything. Work on cultivating the ability to see it even if it is black humour in the darkest of times.
Know that you are never truly alone. Even if you have no family and no one whom you identify as a friend, it is always possible to find someone to talk to whether it be professionals at the end of a phone line or a stranger.
Prayer to the deity or entity of your choice helps. It doesn’t have to be prayer, it can merely be a conversation but you are communicating with something. Even if you don’t believe anything is there, talk to the universe, scream to the skies it helps to get it out
At any given point of crisis, ask yourself how you are. At any given moment, the answer is fine. What has us freaked out is usually thoughts of what happened before or fear of what happens next. At this moment tho, if you can ask the question, the answer is that you are doing ok.
At times of high stress, it is difficult if not impossible to make long range plans. Just figure out the next thing you have to do and do that. Tunnel vision can be enormously effective when necessary in the short term.
Remember that life is an adventure. Every adventure has rough parts. Sometimes the trick is to remain curious as far as what can happen next.
“To be successful at anything, you need the right to fail, not just occasionally.”
— Stephen Frears
At one point or another in our lives, we all our faced with failure. Something that we try to do doesn’t work. Perhaps everything in our life falls apart at once. At those times we need to learn to move onwards and try again. This comes easier for some of us then for others.
Some of us were raised in families with high expectations and failure was taught to be something to be ashamed of. Many people who are over achievers in their life come from this type of background. However when things go wrong for them, they tend to really go wrong. They were never given space for failure and so they don’t deal with it well. Others who come from this background learn to never take risks. They live safe lives but seldom find fulfilment.
Many of us were luckier. Our families taught us the value of persistence and that not everything in life works out magically. We were taught that its ok to fall down seven times as long as you are able to get up for an eighth, ninth or even tenth try. These are the people who tend to find the greatest joy because they are not afraid to take risks and they know that there is always a possibility that things won’t work out so they have a plan B and possibly C, D and E waiting in the wings as well.
It is possible for both the person too fearful to take a risk or the overachiever who has had their lives fall apart to learn to persist tho it may take years. In the long run like so much else, it all depends on who it is that we want to be in our lives and having the courage to be it even if we don’t always get it right.
Blessings, G
“Do yourself a favor: become your own savior”
— Daniel Johnston
I used to believe when things became rough in my life that I would find a great roll model, someone whom I could emulate and or follow and they would show me how not only to get out of my present difficulties but teach me how to avoid all others. Someone who’s path I could follow and have the perfect life. I can’t believe now how much I sold myself short.
Oh I found several people willing to take on the job of teacher / saviour. Many believe that they have found the answer to all of life’s problems and if everyone followed their methods, the world would be in much better shape. Unfortunately tho what works for one person does not work for others. We all have our own path to walk and most saviours have feet of clay. Many of them are more lucky than skillful in their own lives and believing their luck will rub off by osmosis is almost always a mistake. Following another is not only selling ourself short but it is also a setup for the other person. By helping put them on a pedestal we merely give them a height to fall from.
Gradually I learned that I may not always have the right answer but what I do have is the perseverance to keep going until I find the answer that works for me. I have the ability to learn from my mistakes and move on both stronger and wiser than I was before. I have learned the hard way that the only one who can save me is myself and quite honestly I prefer it that way. The more of life’s problems that I can solve the more self-confidence I have that I can handle anything that comes my way.
Blessings, G
“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”
― Charles Bukowski
My puppet strings cut long ago
I wear no chains unwillingly
I am free to do my will
My only task discovery.
My love is freedom’s sun
In its shadows do I dwell
Any who would deny me
their wishes I will quell
My will is clear within me
it’s fulfillment is why I live
in laughter love and merriment
giving what I have to give.
On life’s long journey forward
I’m never looking back
As long as I have liberty
there’s nothing that I lack.
— G A Rosenberg
“Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again. That is why every man’s story is important, eternal, sacred; that is why every man, as long as he lives and fulfills the will of nature, is wondrous, and worthy of consideration. In each individual the spirit has become flesh, in each man the creation suffers, within each one a redeemer is nailed to the cross.”
― Hermann Hesse
Aleister Crowley in the Book of the Law said it. “Every man and every woman is a star.” Among other things this means to me that we are each unique and capable of expressing something that no one else can express. Oh our energy may incarnate in other times and other places but in this time, in this place with this energy we are unique. What is it that we are meant to express? Most of us spend our lives working at discovering this. Eventually we catch on to the fact that whether or not we do it consciously, whether or not we do it well, we are always expressing our uniqueness. Oh it is easy especially in this 21st century here-now to pretend to be someone or something other but ultimately we become ourselves. Our masks slip away. I don’t know that I would have it any other way.
Blessings, G
“Whenever you feel a negative emotion be alone in a room and just sit down with it and feel. Don’t judge it, criticize it, intellectualize it, explain it away. Allow yourself to feel the pain. It’s okay.”
— Bo Sanchez
I feel hurt, angry, tired, sick at what I see. I won’t deny my anger anymore. I don’t need to act it out especially not at those who didn’t cause it in the first place but I acknowledge it. To deny my feelings or contain them is the cruelest form of self-betrayal.
I cry with sorrow and cry with rage and let myself run the gamete of emotions from A to Z. The feelings will crash over me of hurt and loss until they have run their course.
It is an emotional storm yet it is also a healing one. When it has run through and the skies clear again, I will be as well.
Blessings, G
“Do stories grow? Pretty obviously — anybody who has ever heard a joke being passed on from one person to another knows that they can grow, they can change. Can stories reproduce? Well, yes. Not spontaneously, obviously — they tend to need people as vectors. We are the media in which they reproduce; we are their petri dishes… Stories grow, sometimes they shrink. And they reproduce — they inspire other stories. And, of course, if they do not change, stories die.”
–Neil Gaiman
Did you hear the one about the man who tried?
He failed so many times that he thought he’d die
still reached and found the courage somewhere inside
to go on and attempt it again?
Did you hear the one of the heart that cared?
It was so tempting to give into their fear
yet still they had enough will to dare
and so met the man halfway
What about the one about the two who loved?
Buried so deep but they reached above
Their passion flared up when push came to shove
but they kept on going?
We’ll close on the tale of the love that would last
The story of two who pushed past their past
to burn so brightly and yet way too fast
so they learned to reignite
Guardian of the Abyss by G A Rosenberg 
It Came From the Depths by G A Rosenberg 
