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Five Steps to Help Rebuild After a Mudslide

December 19, 2014 By wdcteam Leave a Comment

This coming February, it will be 10 years since a mudslide swept through out home and changed our lives dramatically. Once again, mudslides fill the news in the wake of heavy storms after years of drought and fire damage. The plants that hold our soil to the surface of rocks have been destroyed and with their loss, people face serious challenges as well.

In a matter of moments, our lives as we have known them are swept away.   It is hard to believe as we survey so much loss and destruction around us that we are standing at the edge of a creative opportunity that will enable us to not only survive, but thrive.

It is a process that can take considerable time. Having lived through it, perhaps these suggestions will prove helpful now:

  1. Find help. Although you will have to do this on your own, you cannot do it alone. In the immediate aftermath, you will need to take care of your safety and shelter before everything else. Seek out those who can assist in your rescue and recovery. You want a support system to get you through the profound grief, fear and shock that immediately follow a disaster, as well as resources to rescue what you can.

Peter and I found our church to be our strength during this most difficult time. Members put us up, helped us find temporary homes for our animals, and helped us rescue our belongings and get them to a storage facility. They prayed with us, cried with us and gave us the emotional strength to carry on.

  1. As soon as possible, begin to focus on what you want The recovery process takes time. Knowing what you want provides a mental anchor to which you can return regularly as you work through each step.

Peter and I knew we wanted a home and space for our family of animals – horses, dogs, cat, bird and fish. We were able to focus first on everyone’s safety, then places to live in the immediate time period. During that time, friends from church permitted us to use rooms, pipe corrals and other storage places until we could get on our feet. It took about 6 weeks to find an independent rental home and another 1 ½ years before we found a new permanent home.

  1. Once you have your focus on your desired results, your goal, you can begin to examine where you want to go and identify the resources you have to move toward it. One of the big surprises for me was that this does not happen overnight. More is swept away in a mudslide than your physical possessions. Over an extended period of time, you will go through stages of looking at physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of your life that have been affected. I found that taking an inventory of these various aspects enabled me to examine what was and was not working in our lives up to that date and then recover, rebuild and recreate what we desired with our goal ever before us.
  1. In the immediate aftermath, your surrounding circumstances may not give you any reason to believe in a brighter future. However, you can create one. You can use your natural skills and abilities to yield even better results than you had before.

I found I could do this by learning more about the mind. Current scientific research finds that the default position of the brain is to fall into negative beliefs of loss, despair and hopelessness, and the litany of “it won’t work, it can’t be done.” We are all familiar with this voice in our head when we are feeling down and out.

So the best thing you can do for yourself is to cultivate the habit of positive possibility thinking using affirmations and Afformations. I used these along with neuro-emotional work with a chiropractor, myofascial therapy with an occupational therapist, hypnosis and guided imagery.   The most powerful work I did to maintain my mental and emotional health throughout this time period involved asking positive questions, journaling, meditation and centered prayer.

My book, Rainbows Over Ruins is a story of recovering, rebuilding and recreating after such a disaster. If you would like to read about someone who has been there and gotten through it, pick up a copy. It’s available on Amazon.

Wherever you find yourself today, know that if I can do it, you can too. You can get past these losses by keeping your goals in front of you as you work through the process step by step. If you have questions, reach out to me. I am open to helping you think through your steps to recovery. May you find as I did that deep within every crisis lie the seeds of infinite opportunity.

To Your Success,

Susan

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: afformations, find help, Focus, goals, inventory, mudslide, opportunity, power of the mind, questions, Rainbows Over Ruins, rebuild, recover, recovery process, recreate, survive, thrive

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  • “Susan ran the Producers Guild of America seminars program for years – and while she was heading it up we had an amazing array of well-produced, always-well-attended and interesting seminars and “evenings with” events. She has a real handle on putting together top-notch panels, finding guest speakers and outlining the main topics for the seminars, as well as a great attention to the details needed to pull these off. I highly recommend her and her fantastic skills.”

    Tim Gibbons
    Executive Producer, HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, Governor, Producers Peer Group, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
  • “Calm, Serenity, Wisdom, Patience, Empathy. These are the characteristics that I think of, when I think of you. Throughout our relationship, you have always “shared only and freely” with me. You have never been judgmental (of anyone really) or unkind with words. Your ability to take in all the information surrounding a situation, process it in a kind, loving and logical way and then interpret the information back in such a way that I feel that I too can learn and grow from the experience, whether it was mine or not. Susan, I believe that you are a conduit, maybe not the right word…a channel…o.k. I laymen’s terms, you are the glue that holds us all together. If I were ever in a crisis…I’d want you to be with me more than anyone I know.”

    Toni Casala
    Owner, Children in Film
  • “When the Producers Guild of America merged with the American Producers of America, limited benefits were available for a fast growing membership. Susan Sherayko stepped in and created the most successful enrichment programs possible for the PGA. She became the Chairperson of the Seminar programs and was able to offer the membership an opportunity to learn the essentials of how to be a better producer of TV, Motion Pictures and Syndication for many leaders and icons in our industry. The subject matter was vast as each seminar attempted to instruct the producers in a vast array of subjects. Susan produced or was responsible for the vision of this stellar committee. Turnout of attendees for these seminars was consistently gratifying in both in numbers and approvals. The legacy of Susan’s organizational skills and execution is exemplified by the continuing programs being offered today for the PGA membership…now over 4000 members strong. Thanks, Susan, I personally enjoyed attending your seminars and afterwards felt more confident and wiser. ”

    George Sunga
    Executive Producer, “The Jeffersons”, Governor, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
  • “Susan uses her whole brain when crafting solutions. She knows how to visualize the result she wants and then build the structure to support the dream. She constantly prods people who are stuck in one way of seeing something into realizing new paths to take up the mountains of success. Now she is willing to share her unique approach to creating success systems with people who are ready to go the next level in their business and personal lives. I would sign up for her seminars and coaching program quickly because once the word gets out the waiting list is going to be long. I can’t think of anyone else I would trust more with creating the logistics for launching a new endeavor. Susan knows how to create successful enterprises and she is willing to coach you to your next success.”

    Kate Maxwell
    Hypnotist, Spiritual Life Coach

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