Welcome to Your Crisis: How to Use the Power of Crisis to Create the Life You Want

This is a fantastic book on the human condition. Laura provides a way to classify your natural response type and how to work with it, rather than against it. It's a wonderful alternative to the typical "one size fits all" therapy. I have read it, done the exercises, and found parts of myself that I hadn't realized existed. Don't be fooled by the title of the book; you needn't be in crisis to derive value from the book. In many ways, it is a crisis PREVENTION. I highly recommend this book. Buy it for yourself or friends who may need a hand-up.

Laura Day is an amazing guide in this world. Her books get progressively better and better. In this book she posits what I have long believed... that in your worst moments you will find the things you have sought and not found. This is a great book for anyone trying to change their life, which is just about everyone I know. Furthermore, Day does not take some touchy-feely-new-agey approach, but stays rooted in the practical and the real. It is refreshing and it is also what works. If you are looking to just feel good, then don't read this book. If you are looking to change your life and be willing to do what that takes, then BUY THIS BOOK NOW please! I am betting you will find that the purchase of this book is one of the best investments you will ever make in yourself and your life.

The stress of crisis can provoke unhealthy behavior in otherwise healthy adults. Bestselling author Laura Day takes a fresh look at various coping styles, and helps readers understand the four basic styles she's identified: depression, anxiety, rage and denial. Understanding our own knee-jerk reaction to major crises in our lives is our first step toward gaining control. Reading the rest of this book is the next step toward developing a new, conscious style of coping that builds on the strengths of our natural tendencies while transcending their simultaneous weaknesses. In addition to self-knowledge, this book imparts insights into others and how their own reactions to crisis, and approaches to problem-solving, can vary dramatically. I envision this book being of particular value to anyone who manages others (e.g. executives and entrepreneurs) as a way of gaining insight into others' coping mechanisms and learning how they might best be assisted. Laura Day is a gifted, insightful writer whose compassion and wisdom shine through on every page of this extraordinary book.

Laura Day manages to turn the idea of "crisis" inside-out. She explains that crises "revolutionize" us; they wake us up and invite us to make decisions about our lives. In fact, as she says, the word "crisis" and "decision" actually come from the same Greek root. I loved the helpful exercises. Unlike the other reviewer, I did not read the book in two days (although it's an easy read and I could have). Instead, I poured myself into the exercises, answering her questions in a journal. Laura is the goddess of simplicity and practicality, yet, at the same time, her work has tremendous depth. For instance, check out her discussion of the relationship between the four response types: anger, anxiety, denial, and depression -- it's clear, deep, real, and very useful. Many people live in crisis without realizing it, and this is part of what makes *Welcome to Your Crisis* such an amazing book. I want to give a copy to at least 10 people I know right now who would benefit from the affirmative, wise, and wonderful advice in this book. [...]and the rest of the world, start a revolution; read this book!

If you have read Laura Day's The Circle ... the section on creating space hints at why a crisis is also an opportunity. President Kennedy once said that the Chinese characters for Crisis was the same as opportunity and this book delves deeper into the nature of that phenomenon. Laura Day has experienced these events herself and is speaking from experience. Often in a crisis the natural inclination is to focus on our emotional responses. When these reactions are negative it often triggers unhealed wounds that cause us to re-traumatize ourselves. Herein lies either the blessing or the curse ... and the remedy is in our choices to heal the original wound once and for all, and often with the help of those trained to do so. If we choose the emotionally healthy and healing response we are well on our way. If not, we risk staying in the quagmire of the trauma. Most people need guidance coming out alive, this is called resilience, and welcoming your crisis is the first step in ultimately...climbing out of the pit. That said, it is OK to find constructive safe releases for justified anger, such as kick boxing, running, a therapy group, putting up boundaries, saying what you need to say to those involved in a situation, and legal vindication when required. Just as long as you discharge the emotions from your emotional body and seek legal, ethical, and moral conclusions as fast as possible so you are free by feeling justice. Then you are ready for phase 2 of a crisis response: processing what happened, learning the lessons, and being in a state of forgiveness so it doesn't happen again. Forgiveness is when you let go fully and honestly of the attachment to the idea that the past be any differently than it was. And forgiving before it is emotionally safe and healthy for you only hurts you more with the poison of denial. THIS IS TOUGH AND IT HAPPENS GRADUALLY. BUT YOU MUST DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO BOUNCE BACK STRONGER AND BETTER. Remember ... go with the energy properly and with the intent that the best revenge is a well-lived life in integrity. Remember too that two wrongs don't make a right, being hurt gives you NO permission to perpetrate another. It's more like the man whose wife runs off on him with another man, in the most vindictive fashion, and once the divorce is finalized becomes a mult-millionnaire and she can't touch his fortune. More just desserts then bitter pill. One of my newest favorite films displays this principle in action. In the 2005 movie "Just Friends", the overweight Chris is madly in love with his best friend Jamie. When he confesses his feelings for her on graduation night, he is spurned and publicly humiliated. In shock, Chris jumps on his bike (it's a teenage love crisis) and screams with FULL INTENTION "I'll show you"! "I'll show you all"! Then rides away. Ten years later he is a hot, successful music executive in LA who dates supermodels, plays semi-pro hockey, and is a major handsome buffed catch. His teenage hurt and reje