Proven ways of finding yourself after a crisis
Estimated reading time: 17 minutes
Have you reached a point where you feel lost and don’t even know who you are? Have you encountered situations that have left you wondering if you even remember who you are? Would you like to know the key to finding yourself after a crisis? Maybe the situation has now subsided and you now want to get to find yourself and at the very least, get back to you. Maybe because of the circumstances you have gone through, you have let yourself go for so long that you can’t even remember who you were.
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Does the person you look at when staring at a mirror seem foreign to you? Then today I have a word for you. It is so easy to let yourself go when life circumstances come your way. And if we are not careful, we can even forget that we need to take care of ourselves so that everything else around us can progress. The truth of the matter is that it starts with you. When you thrive, then everything else around you will thrive too.
So here you are, the path you thought was the right one for you now seems unreachable. Maybe you lost your job, are facing financial difficulties….the list is endless. Life is a journey and with every journey, we encounter some unexpected situations that sidetrack us. No matter how much of a control freak we are, we can never plan for these unforeseen circumstances. One day you know a plan and road you want to take and suddenly life throws curveballs, and you now felt lost and confused. When this happens, it leads one to question their identity. But there is hope after a crisis and you can find yourself
Finding yourself after a crisis can be overwhelming. In such moments, it’s very easy to lose hope and give up. But I am here to tell you that even in the darkest of days, there is always a small spark of light to help you. As believers, we can find our ground hoping God already has a plan for us and He knows our end from our beginning.http://bible.us/1/jer29.11.amp
Ways we can let ourselves go.
- Stop doing things that brought us joy
- Isolate from the people who love us
- Postpone our happiness and joy
- Focus only on the crisis and make it the center of our lives.
- Go through the motions
Finding yourself after a crisis can be hindered by the crisis itself. It is understandable to focus on the crisis at hand when it comes our way. The problem then comes when we allow the crisis to determine the trajectory of our lives. This simply means allowing the crisis to change us into people we never were, to begin with. We obviously know that God is perfect and when He created us the way He did, He knew that we were complete as we were. Granted, because we live in a fallen world, we are prone to acquiring behaviors and characters that are contrary to who God says we are.
An example would be because of being let go at your place of work or facing a traumatic situation, you isolate yourself and become a self-proclaimed introvert when you know that’s not who you are. Can you relate? Do you have characters that you have developed because of your crisis as some form of coping mechanism that you have allowed to become a part of who you are? If yes, I want you to know that you can let it go.
Yes, it served a purpose at the time, as you were using it to cope and deal with the situation at hand. But now it’s time for you to begin the journey of finding yourself after a crisis. And become the person God created you to be. Remember this, God makes no mistakes, and He knows that the personality He gave you is needed to solve a problem in the world. After all, you and I were created to become solutions to the earth. Remember how Moses’ personality and character were used to bring deliverance to the Israelites?
Let’s take a quick look at the life of Moses.
Moses was born at a time when the Israelites needed deliverance from the oppression they were experiencing in Egypt. God knew it and so Moses was born at that time. Unfortunately, Pharaoh had issued a decree to have all the Israelites’ male children killed during childbirth. Moses’ mother was not willing to do that, so she hid him instead. When she could not hide him any longer, she made a basket of reeds and placed him inside, and took the basket along the bank of the Nile. Moses’s sister was tasked with the duty to check and see who would take him.
Pharaoh’s daughter discovered him and thus raised him and had his mother for the initial years nurse him. So Moses was raised in the palace and thus gained the right skills and character as a deliverer. Because his mother trained Moses, his mother instilled in him the Jewish culture, so Moses knew that he was a jew and thus had their best interests at heart. Despite being raised in the palace, Moses knew his identity was Jewish.
Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket[a] for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. 5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses,[b] saying, “I drew him out of the water.” Exodus 1
When Moses became an adult he killed an Egyptian man who was oppressing the jew. Unfortunately, the Jews did not take it positively but instead mocked him for it asking him what made him think he was their leader. Moses ran away when he realized he had been discovered and so went to live in the wilderness as a shepherd.
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,[c] saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
Here we see Moses leaving who he was because he was rejected by the people he was called to save. And thus he took on a personality that was not his until God called him back to his purpose. And that’s where the burning bush encounter comes in.
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
I8JJ498yaTBEQIIRJlyQX6TQeYwYXPltxo11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[b] will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[c] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[d] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. 16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go. 21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
Moses, because of a crisis, had forgotten who he was and God wanted to remind him so that he can take on his mandate. God is asking the same of you today. He wants you to get back to the person He created you to be, and He wants you to find yourself. It’s time to start the journey of rediscovering who God created you to be. So then, how do you rediscover yourself and become the person God created you to be?
Steps to take after a crisis
- Acknowledge the Pain
- Communicate with God
- Talk to the Holy Spirit
- Journal your feelings
- Read the Bible
- Celebrate the small wins
- Be still
Acknowledge the pain
One very vital thing to finding yourself after a crisis is to acknowledge the pain. We cannot deny the pain we feel and mostly when we don’t deal with our pain, it manifests in other ways and the ways can prove detrimental to us. Accept what has happened and also accept that you are in pain regarding the situation. Remember, you are only human.
When you acknowledge your pain, you give room for healing. Before any healing can happen, there has to be a coming to terms moment. Yes, the crisis happened, and yes you lost yourself, but now you are ready to begin the journey of rediscovering who you are and finding yourself after the crisis. God will help you through the journey. He says that He will always be there for you and you need not be afraid. So it’s okay to face that pain again so that you can heal.
Honest with God
When finding yourself after a crisis, honesty is key. Be honest with God about the situation. God wants a relationship with us, and the most important thing in any relationship is communication. Be raw and honest with Him. Speak to Him about the situation, and what you are feeling, be it anger or frustration. Tell it all to Him. He cares.
When Job faced calamities, He went through a period of mourning, and in that season, he was very raw about his feelings. God will only heal the parts you give to Him and He will only heal the real version you bring, not the one you are pretending to be. Have you been pretending before God? God is not a human being. This means that you can tell Him exactly what it is you are feeling.
Remember this, it is in your honesty that healing comes and the real you emerge. When you are honest with God, it means that you are allowing your authentic self to thrive and that is a step in the right direction. Finding yourself after a crisis will reveal your true self.
Commune with The Holy Spirit
In finding yourself after a crisis, communication is key. Talk to the Holy Spirit. Jesus told us He will not leave us as orphans, but that He would send us the Holy Spirit to be our helper. The Holy Spirit is the one who strengthens us when we are weak and gives us hope when we are hopeless. I have found that to be really helpful, especially in moments when I do not know what to do.
The Holy Spirit is your friend and wants to help you in your rediscovery journey. The beauty about trusting Him is that He will only let you cultivate the real you therefore you will not lose yourself. Also, allowing Him to help you means that when you go astray, He will be there to help you get back on track. That is how God is. He is so personal.
Journal your feelings
Journal your feelings. Journaling is more about expressing yourself through writing. It does not have to flow. Studies have shown that journaling can help in the reduction of depression and stress. Studies have also shown that journaling helps in the brooding reduction and sulking phase. Journaling helps you put into words what you are feeling so you will process your emotions.
Don’t be intimidated and wonder what it is you are supposed to write. There is no formula. Just write what is on your mind and don’t hold back. It does not matter what thoughts come in as you write. Just let yourself flow in your writing.. As you do so you will realize that you have released the pent-up emotions and therefore can start the healing journey.
Journalling will also give you clarity on what you really want in your self-discovery journey. Also, as you journal, you will separate your thoughts from what the Holy Spirit is telling you. This will therefore give you the clarity to hear Him when He speaks to you.
Read Gods Word
Read God’s Word. The Bible was written to give us guidelines regarding any situation. So if you are going through a season of the financial crisis, a scripture like Mathew 6:31-34 can get you by. Knowing that God is the one who provides food for the sparrows and the birds will give you hope He will do the same for you since you are more valuable than they are.
The word of God helps you in the healing process and the finding yourself process. This is because the more you read the word of God, the more you expel all the other thoughts and thus renew your mind. Also, as you read the word of God, you will discover who you really are because you are basing who you are on His word and He is your Creator.
Reading God’s word will help you find yourself. In your revelation of who God is, you will receive revelation about who you are. It is in finding God that you find yourself. The more you read His word, the more you find out who you are, why you were created, and what your purpose is.
Celebrate the small wins
Celebrate the small wins. Even in a season of crisis, we always have something to be thankful for. In Fact, making a list of things that you are thankful for will help you find joy in the desert days. Praise boosts our mood and changes the atmosphere. Also, when you make it a point to celebrate the small wins, you are able to see the progress you are making and keep track of how far you have come.
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a step. So keep track of every progress you make and as long as you stay consistent, you will get to the place you’ve always wanted to.
Be still
Finally, be still. Allow God to do the work He wants to do in you. Spend time with Him. Have alone times with Him and let Him transform you from the inside out so that God can perfect you. God is with you in this season. He will never leave you. He knows what you are going through and He wants to bring out the best in you. It is in the solitude and stillness that you will find yourself.
Being still means both getting rid of external distractions and also silencing your inner chaos. Embrace solitude and silence. Listen to your heart and allow your thoughts and the Holy Spirit to take control. In so doing, you will learn to be still and therefore have clarity on moving forward and finding yourself.
Conclusion
Do not allow yourself to get stuck in the wilderness because of a crisis. It is time for you to dust yourself up and discover who you are and what God wants you to be. It does not matter how far away you’ve gone, if you are willing, God will meet you where you are and help you discover who you really are.
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Radiantly Resurging
Mercy is the author and founder of radiantly resurging. She is a Christian and having gone through the wilderness season, she decided to impart the knowledge learned to help others navigate their wilderness season too
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