July 9, 2009 | 1:44 am

Tragedy(?) and the Way Through

Posted by Misha Henckel

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Misha Henckel is a Los Angeles-based personal and executive life coach. Her executive clients are generally leaders of entertainment and media companies who are focused on re-inventing themselves and re-envisioning their organizations. She is founder of Life Mastery Circles, a workshop series for women, and is co-founding a new organization for empowering and developing women leaders. She can be reached at www.mishahenckel.com or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

It’s certainly been a remarkable past several days; the news has been filled with death, infidelity, political uprising or tragedy of one form or the other. When you think of it, things have been “falling apart” for a while now – it’s just intensified in the last few weeks. In my work, I’m encountering more and more people who’re finding that their “old” lives have come to an end. They’ve lost their job, their significant relationship has come to an end, or they are dealing with some major health or financial concern. Unquestionably, these are challenging and confusing times, with many of us living out what, in the past, would have shown up only in the realm of our nightmares.

So what do you do when it seems that your fears have become your reality?

You breathe. You breathe some more. And then you breathe deeper. You claim the inner strength and courage to stay true to what is highest within you. You must open your heart for help, and seek out those who can be of truest guidance.

We must never forget, no matter what we face personally or collectively, that there is always a way through. We may need to open our minds considerably, give up some (or many) of the beliefs that we have rigidly held onto, and change our habit-patterns. But if we are willing, the way will show up. It always does… Truth is, as we eventually come to know, our fears have a way of coloring things and making them much worse than they really are. Focusing on the many blessings and gifts that life is offering us, can often quickly get us out of the seeming tragedy and into the joy.

Email me with your questions and I will be happy to respond. Answers will be anonymously posted to the blog.