A wake-up call can change everything. Don't waste that opportunity -- here's how you can deal with it wisely.

1. How to Handle Life’s Wake-Up Calls Wisely

2. It is natural for us all to lean forward, look straight ahead and continue
committed to the life we have created or co-created for ourselves.
But then, one day, a wake up call can change everything.

3. Perhaps we realize that our current life is not working for us.
We wonder how we could have possibly let that happen.
It is as if we wake up from a dream state we somehow slipped into.

4. When the wake up call comes,
the instinct may be to bolt, to run, to escape to greener pastures.
We could quit an over-burdening job,
run from a relationship with challenges,
or burn bridges we dedicated our lives to building.

5. If a situation is abusive or terribly destructive, leaving immediately is essential.
However, wake up calls are usually most wisely addressed after inner calm is restored.
Waking up from a life path that gradually overtook us
does not usually require impulsive action from a place of eruption.

6. After a wake up call comes, we are usually flooded with
pent up emotions, perhaps resentment, depression, fight or flight.
But often the issues are not so much about the story,
but are instead about our inner conflicts we brought to the story,
which affected an otherwise beautiful story.

7. A wake up call always offers the opportunity for growth;
but the explosion of emotions that have been pent up over
years must be processed before major decisions are made,
lest we jump out of a frying pan and into a fire.

8. Wake up calls seem to demand immediate and extreme action,
but are usually best addressed with wise reflection and gentle shifts.
Otherwise, we hurt ourselves and our loved ones.
The damage done can be irreversible.

9. Usually in life, more good is created than bad,
but when the wake up call comes,
the explosive reaction can be to cast it all away.

10. An impulsive reaction to life's wake up call
usually results in a situation
much worse than what we left behind.

11. When a wake up call comes, before you act, it is time to look within,
resolve your issues, conflicts, unhealthy perspectives, and childhood woundings.
From that place of calm, more subtle adjustments can create the life you long for.

12. Most wake up calls involve changing yourself from within.
Our issues are usually less about the story of our life
and more about the relationship we have with our life.
Giving time for emotions to calm provides a clear vision for a wise path ahead.