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Transformation in
Times of Loss and Stress
Before birth, the
embryo puts down roots, so to speak, and attaches itself to a source
of warmth and comfort. "Hey, this isn't too bad," you
can imagine the pre-birth child saying. "This room is rather
nice. I've nothing to do all day and night but float around and
grow."
Ah, but that's the rub. As time goes on, the
baby does, indeed, grow, so much in fact that he takes up more and
more room until the eviction notice comes and he's kicked out into
the wide, wide world.
Thus he experiences the first major transformation
of a life that will, if well lived, consist of many transformative
opportunities—though he'll often not recognize them as such.
Yet all of life is one loss after another. As we fall asleep at
night, we lose the day that is ending. When we awake, we are born
into another day with new opportunities to grow and stretch.
This process was summarized by Erich Fromm when
he said:
"Man is always torn between the wish
to regress to the womb and the wish to be fully born. Every act
of birth requires the courage to let go of something, to let go
of the breast, to let go of the lap, to let go of the hand, to let
go eventually of all certainties, and to rely only upon one thing:
one's own power to be aware and to respond; that is, one's own creativity."
"To be creative means to consider the
whole process of life as a process of birth, and not to take any
stage of life as a final stage. Most people die before they are
fully born. Creativeness means to be born before one dies."
In this section we explore how you can learn
to respond to stress in such a way that it doesn't not become an
overwhelming burden. We also discuss the many ways that letting
go and grieving something which is lost can be a transformative
process.
So if you have lost a loved one, or an important
job, or a significant relationship, or any other loss that requires
you to move on, we hope the articles in this section will help you
recognize your own power to be aware and to respond—your own
creativity.
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