You are busy living, working hard, doing what you are supposed to do and going along your merry way when all of a sudden life takes an unexpected turn and you find yourself facing a big challenge.  You lose your job, or a loved one becomes ill, or you are passed over for a promotion due to office politics, or something much worse happens.  How do you handle such a situation?  Become stressed?  Find yourself awake at night worrying and brooding?  Do you become paralyzed and spend hours thinking that you will never be able to make it through this 'hopeless situation?'  Everyone goes through these difficult situations at some point or another in life.

And then something amazing happens.  Time passes, and you actually make it through the difficult time.  Sometimes it's nothing short of the 'phoenix emerging out of the ashes.'  Everyone has experienced this also.  The question is: How do you cope when you are going through a difficult time?  I suggest that you reflect on your previous devastating experiences.  Think about why you felt paralyzed, and then think about how things turned out at the end.  More than likely, you will find that what had caused you great amounts of anxiety once seems manageable a year or so later.  Similarly, what seems hopeless and extremely difficult right now in your life will not seem so in the future.