I Will Rise Like a Phoenix from the Ashes of My Life

2094 Words5 Pages

Perception is reality. As human beings our thoughts and beliefs are often the basis upon which we construct our social environment. Perception is a powerful phenomenon, and in a single moment one’s perception of a set of circumstances can shift, altering an individual’s reality as they know it. Given that one of the key factors in defining a crisis can be found in an individual’s perception of the precipitating event, perception becomes a vital component of maintaining balance in life.

This shift in perception was solely responsible for the complete alteration of my world as I understood it to be. My perception of the past three years, the future of my marriage, and my own future was threatened in one day, in a way that spun my world into a personal crisis. My husband and I had been married for a difficult two years. The first of those two years he was deployed to Iraq, while the latter of the two was spent attempting to recover from that deployment. My marriage was difficult, but until that day in April I was committed to making it work, it was for better or worse; this was the worse but in my perception the better was yet to come. My husband had cheated; I had forgiven, my husband had lied; I had trusted, my husband drank; I offered support, my husband was deployed; I offered my loyalty, but when I discovered my husband had created a false reality for me to live in; I walked away.

Coming home from school that day I noticed I had a new message on my Facebook. It was an email from my husband’s sister, and for a moment I was curious as to what she had to say. As I began to read I felt my world begin to spin, my heart rate increased, my thoughts began to race, and I felt a wave of panic consume me. In this email she informed m...

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...m as an opportunity to grow as an individual and a professional. Finally, I was able to objectively view my husband’s behavior in the context of human behavior, and in doing so I took ownership of my social work education on a deep personal level. This objectivity will be useful in assisting future clients throughout crisis situations.

By not only experiencing this crisis, but also by processing my actions and environment on a spiritual level, I realized that in a single moment in time your perception, and thereby your reality, can be shattered. A storm can overcome your world, and in its wake that storm can leave destruction and chaos. But it is after the storm, after all we have known has crumbled, that we are given the profound opportunity to rebuild our lives from the inside out, with a stronger foundation, capable of weathering future storms life may bring.

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