Port in the Storm
A Refuge in Troubled Times
When you are out in a storm, you need to learn how to protect yourself until the storm has passed, because we know that no storm lasts forever. These stories and reflections and thoughts and exercises are all free and given in the hope that they will teach you about how to stay safe during your difficult days, until you can get to see someone qualified to help you find your way through whatever darkness you are struggling with. Until then, this site offers to walk alongside you, offering you a place where you can begin to unravel some of the knots in the rope which are restricting and containing you from sailing freely through life. This site does not replace the wisdom of the medical and psychiatric practitioners. It is a stepping stone to stand upon until such time as you feel able to move on to the next stepping stone in your life. When there is water surrounding you on all sides, a stepping stone is a safe place to rest until you can see the next step you can take.
I hope and pray that you find rest and support and comfort in this place and walk away a little less heavily burdened than when you arrived.
We all need safe places we can turn to when we are in the storms of our lives, being tossed around on a wild and choppy sea. We need a safe harbour we can pull into, to shelter from the winds and the rains and regain perspective, rest and recuperate. This site is such a place. As you pull in, nothing will be asked of you except that you find somewhere in the harbour where you can find rest.
At a time when mental health problems are becoming more acute in many, there are growing numbers of men, women and even children chasing after few and limited resources. In a time of real need and even despair, where are they meant to go? Whilst they wait for their referral or their first appointment, what support can we provide to help them feel not so alone and prevent them drifting into dangerous waters?
This site aims to be a safe place that they can visit when there is nowhere else to go. It is a port in their storm. It is a refuge in troubled times. It is a place that will protect and comfort them when no other support is forthcoming.
Every day so many struggle to cope and get through. I was one of those people for many many years. It seemed that one disaster followed another and I struggled to keep my head above water. Yet I did learn how to cope, survive and get through. I still carry many of the scars from that time but each one ultimately, in time, gave me a gift of wisdom and truth. It was a horrible way to learn these things but I did learn them.
As a result of all I experienced, I trained and gained qualifications and extensive experience in Counselling, Life Coaching and Christian Spiritual Direction. Now my desire is to pass on some of that hard earnt wisdom to others going through the same or similar storms as I did. The storms might be different, but a storm is a storm. If you were a sailor, you would want to grow in understanding of the sea and her moods from an experienced sailor. They could teach you what they have learnt in order to hopefully prevent you from making some of the same mistakes they did. My hope for this site is no different.
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Finding Your Way Around the Port
There are many places in this port which are open and I will try and direct you as best I can to a place where you might find some answers to your problems. Yet it might be that in taking time walking around the harbour, something else might catch your minds eye and attention. If you feel drawn somewhere else, have the courage to follow that trail as you may be able to see your life and issues from a different perspective.
All I ask is that you try and find some meal here and take the time to eat it, reflect on it and even pray about it. It's a time to leave the storms behind for a short while and find some peace. Your mind needs to learn to be still or otherwise you are bringing the storm into the harbour with you.
Before you begin to read these words of life, take time to put your worries outside the door of your heart and mind for a while. They will still be there when you return, but you might be able to see them with new eyes.
So before you begin exploring the harbour, tie up your ship and leave it safe, knowing it will be there after you've explored this safe place, this port away from the storm.
Stilling your mind
Why is stilling ones mind important?
Because it is the captain of our ship and if that captain is full of fear, anxiety and dread then he or she is not going to make sound decisions. The best way to move forward is to tie your boat up, with the captain aboard and go in search of wisdom. When we don't still our mind, its like staying out at sea on the crashing waves and in the storm. Instead we need to leave the mess and confusion behind as if we are taking a flight on a plane. Once we leave the ground, our problems will become smaller and eventually we won't be able to see them. Instead we will break through the clouds and see nothing but clear blue skies and sunshine. Eventually we will have to come back down and land, but we will be landing in a different place. The old problems will still be there, but we will feel very differently about them and feel more ready to take them on and tackle them. That too is what wisdom is. Its a new way of looking at our issues but with a greater and freer perspective.
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Here are a few other images and thoughts about your mind which might help before you begin to explore the port.
In Troubled Times
Daily Reflections
There are times in life when we feel like we are on a battlefield. Every day we hear gunshots and feel fear. We see others as we have never seen them before. We get hurt by their actions or comments and we get wounded as we have never been wounded before. We are in pain. We hurt badly. We are scared and frightened. We desperately want the battle over and can't really remember how we got so involved in this awful experience. Yet here we are, trying to survive each day as best as we can.
That is what those on the battlefield of life need to remember. That one day soon this battle will be over and we will return to better times. We will have been changed in many ways from our experience on this battlefield but we will get better and move on. What we most need to do now is to stay as safe as we can, until that time comes. We need to get through this and out the other side.
This section aims to get you through this battle and out the other side and to grow as a person through these dark times. It endeavours to help you to learn to live well during this time by giving you ways of seeing that bring greater perspective and meaning into that darkness.
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Each meditation or reflection is like a lit candle of hope to help you see better and to not feel so alone. Reading one a day can be like taking a tablet of hope.
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At the very worst of times, we consider things which we wouldn't otherwise dare to even think about. We think about taking our own life. These times are truly the very darkest times that we can face. It is at these times that we need to be given words of life or candles of light that can give us reasons for hope.
This section is for those contemplating suicide. This section doesn't tell you what to do or what to think. It simply just gently allows you to think through the horrendous dilemma you are in and to begin to make more informed choices about what it is that you really want or need to do at this time. Many of the words are in the form of short stories, helping you to identify with characters and how they might be feeling. Sometimes we can see a situation so much clearer when we are an observer of it, as we can be in a story.
Suicide
The Unheard Cry
Look up and see the bigger picture
In troubled times many begin to recognise that they are more than just their body or their mind. They begin to recognise another part of themselves drawing them into a deeper and more meaningful existence. This part one soon comes to realise is the work of our soul and spirit within us.
It's as if we discover that we are a three legged stool. For so long we have worked on two of our legs, our bodies and mind, hoping that the more we get them straight, our stool will stand. Instead we discover that however hard we commit to improving these two aspects of ourself, our stool will never stand or be all it was created to be without work on the third leg, our spirit and soul. So many sites and resources provide excellent information on the first two legs. This site aims to draw all three legs together by offering an alternative perspective on your life, from the third leg's perspective.
Now, many don't believe that we are more than our bodies and minds and this site is not here to persuade them. It is here to inform those who feel drawn to exploring the third leg.
You will find so much here helping you to find out more about who you are and why you are here. You will find meditations to help you develop these aspects of yourself. You will discover truths that will resonate with you and provide missing pieces of the puzzle of life that you haven't as yet been able to find. You will soon discover that every single person's journey into faith in their spirit and soul is uniquely different, in the same way as each of our fingerprints are. You will also too discover that what you sow into this journey will correlate with what you get out of it.
It is said that every journey begins with a single step. This site enables you to begin to take some steps. There are numerous materials here to help you begin this journey into self and in particular the parts of yourself that have until now often been hidden. I hope as the days become weeks that you begin to feel that you have begun to awaken into a new way of thinking and seeing and understanding this world of which you are a part.