Thriving in the Eye of the Hurricane

Unlocking Resilience in Turbulent Times

Joseph Bailey, MA, LP

• Publisher: TMA Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781642506617
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Self Improvement

Survive and Thrive in Our Uncertain and Turbulent New Normal

"You are about to embark on a hero's journey." ? Michael Neill, author of The Inside Out Revolution and The Space Within

JosephBailey (licensed clinical psychologist for over 40 years) helped pioneera new paradigm of resilience called "Three Principles Psychology". Those who have learned this new understanding of resilience develop an inner strength that enables them to live in the "eye of the hurricane", even in the most challenging situations.

What is the Transformation Principle? The Transformation Principle is a realization of the fundamental way our mind works, bringing about a "transformative resilience" and radically shifting the way we understand ourselves and our chaotic world. It creates an inner strength that enables us to see that it is our thinking that creates our experience and the quality of our lives.

Burnoutprevention and resilience in a changing world. As a leader in the field of addiction therapies and strategies for overcoming fear and burnout, Joseph Bailey has piloted a number of programs on transformative resilience at the Mayo Clinic, The University of Minnesota Medical School, addiction treatment centers, and healthcare facilities. Thousands of students, clients, and professionals have been inspired and educated by his Transformation Principle. He has provided his program of practical tips and proven methods to first responders and a variety of professions including businesses, social service agencies, hospitals, universities, and school communities.

In this ground-breaking book:

• Realize you are the author of your own reality
• Rediscover your innate mental health
• Build your inner strength
  

If you learned from books like Addicted to the Monkey Mind, The New Normal, or Leverage Your Mindset, you'll love Thriving in the Eye of the Hurricane.Also enjoy Joseph Bailey's Slowing Down to the Speed of Life (co-author Dr. Richard Carlson).

Part I 

The Hurricane of Our New Normal: “We Are Living in Interesting Times” 

Chapter 1

Living in The Hurricane

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

—John Archibald Wheeler, describing what he termed Albert Einstein’s “three rules of work”

As I write during these chaotic times, my heart goes out to people around the globe who are facing uncertainty and the fear of the unknown at present, as well as inevitable challenges in the future. Just yesterday, speaking to my editor on the phone, I could feel her angst as we discussed my book. I knew there were unprecedented wildfires burning in the Western United States, so I asked how she was doing.

“I’m a little freaked at the moment,” she replied; “As I look out my window at the skyline of San Francisco, it’s noon, but the sky is as black as the middle of the night. I need to find out what’s happening.” I could feel her fear. Millions of acres of forest, parks, towns, and cities were being engulfed by the worst wildfires in our history. Last night, the news was filled with one story after another of the destruction—record breaking wildfires in the Western states, growing numbers of dead from the Covid-19 pandemic, unfolding scandals and division in our presidential race, and the brand-new Living Planet Report, which shows a massive reduction of animal communities on earth—84 percent just since 1970.

These are just a few of the challenges we face in the hurricane that is life as we are bombarded daily by terrifying news through various media. But we can learn to find the still point within ourselves: At the center of a hurricane with 200 mph destructive winds lies the “eye of the storm,” a calm center where birds and planes can fly peacefully. In today’s turbulence and negativity, how do we find the calm center of the hurricane?

“The eye is a region of mostly calm weather at the center of tropical cyclones. The eye of a storm is a roughly circular area, typically 30–65 km (19–40 miles) in diameter. It is surrounded by the eye wall, a ring of towering thunderstorms where the most severe weather and highest winds occur. The cyclone’s lowest barometric pressure occurs in the eye and can be as much as 15 percent lower than the pressure outside the storm.”

—Wikipedia

Our minds are like hurricanes, often whirling around with growing insecurity and turmoil as we worry about how to make a living, raise our children, and adapt to the changes of our uncertain times. The wonderful thing is that we also have a still calm center at the heart of our being, which is the source of our resilient mind. This part of us is a compass of wisdom that can guide us in moving through the unknown future and the challenges of our daily lives. Pilots will tell you that flying through the eye wall into the eye of the hurricane can be a rocky ride, but once within the center, they experience breathtaking peacefulness and beauty. So it is with us as we discover the “eye” of our mind, that core of being which is full of love, peace, and understanding. We can learn to thrive in spite of the high winds, guided by the insight and wisdom of this calm center.

No matter how furious the winds of our individual thoughts may be, the center of our being remains, waiting for us to listen and discover peace of mind, sanity, and hope. We can call this “eye” resilience, mental health, our True Self, or our divine guidance. Many of us have no idea that this inner resource resides within us. For much of my life, I didn’t know it either. But once I understood how my own unique experience of life is being created by psychological processes, I began to experience my resilience more and more. I was fortunate to be exposed to a new psychological paradigm which points to the underlying principles of human experience. This allowed me to find the eye of the hurricane within my own being.

For the past forty years, I have been teaching and writing about these Principles in my practice as a clinical psychologist and addictions therapist, writer, teacher, and consultant to organizations. My goal has been to pass on the discoveries that allow me consistent access to my resilient nature, especially during these uncertain times. I have learned how to live with less stress while thriving in the eye of the hurricane. I have taught these Principles to people from around the world—people from all walks of life suffering from addictions and mental health issues, including corporate leaders, medical professionals, counselors, and social service workers. I want to share this secret both through my own story and through stories from thousands of others whose lives have been transformed by this understanding.

The purpose of this book is for readers to gain an understanding of how their minds work and to come to know that all the answers they seek lie within the “eye” of their own minds. My hope is that each of us will experience being guided by our innate resilience through our own hurricanes into that safe place of peace and insight.

A Brief History of Human Transformation and Societal Shifts: Life Interrupted Leads to Openness and New Thinking

Throughout time, human beings have gone through periods of great challenge, adversity, and turmoil similar to what we are facing in our current era. These periods force us to reconsider our lives—to reflect, listen to our inner voice of wisdom and insight, and create a new reality.

For example, prior to the Renaissance, Europe was devastated by the Black Death (bubonic plague) circa 1350 AD, which wiped out huge swaths of the population of Italy, France, England, and other European countries. It was also a time of extreme corruption in the Catholic Church, epitomized by the reign of Pope Alexander VI in the late fifteenth century (1492–1503), who kept a mistress in the Vatican, along with their four children, was involved with illegal political activity, and amassed a fortune in land and riches.

This led to a new age we know as the Renaissance. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries produced some of the greatest artists, scientists, and inventors ever, such as Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo. Greek and Roman classics were brought back, and schools and universities sprang up all over what was becoming the modern European world. Free thinking and creativity were encouraged, which widely influenced political transformations in both western and eastern Europe, and eventually led to the birth of modern democracy and the breakdown of the powerful monarchies of Europe. This was also the time of the Reformation, beginning with Martin Luther’s 95 Theses in 1517 questioning the authority and the infallibility of the Catholic Church, which formed the basis of Protestantism.

Disease periodically erupted into massive epidemics and plagues in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as great discoveries continued to emerge. It was during this time that the ideas of Rene Descartes (1596–1650) gave rise to the Age of Enlightenment. His famous saying, “Cogito ergo sum”—“I think, therefore I am”—was instrumental in creating the Age of Reason. And Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626) is credited with the development of the scientific method, leading to the Scientific Revolution. Mathematical and philosophical advancements advanced the Age of Enlightenment when Sir Isaac Newton published his Principia Mathematica in 1687 and John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding saw print in 1689.

The Great Plague (1665–1666) was the worst outbreak of bubonic plague in England since the Black Death epidemic of 1348. London lost roughly 15 percent of its population. Young Isaac Newton, then an average student at Cambridge’s Trinity College, was forced to return to his childhood home. What looked like an unfortunate circumstance led to one of the greate...

Table of contents

• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Part I
• Chapter 1
• Part II
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Part III
• Chapter 4
• Part IV
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Acknowledgments
• Author Biography
• Resources