A bit about Blair
Learning Through a CrisisA bit about Blair
The Crisis
Midway through my life, I came into a dark wood, and the path was holy lost. Dante wrote those lines early in the 1300s. I experienced those lines in 2009. Ironically, I had the tools available to me to avoid that crisis had I been open to using them. Unfortunately, I was asleep to my life, and I suffered for that sloth.
I suspect you are exactly like me in one area of our lives:
We are trying to get through life with a minimum of suffering
and as much joy, peace, and contentment as possible.
and as much joy, peace, and contentment as possible.
If you’re going through some form of crisis (midlife or otherwise), emotional pain, or trauma, I have some understanding of what you might be going through. When my midlife crisis began, I experienced fourteen months of bone-crushing depression and anxiety brought on by some decisions I’d made in the past, which I could not change, and one situation in the present that I also could not control.
Then, just as I thought I was coming out of that darkness, my marriage ended. I had a choice—I could take care of my son with me at home and my daughter at college or pay the bank. I chose to take care of my kids, and I went through bankruptcy. From the beginning until I rose out of depression, it was over two and a half years.
After the crisis had passed, I was the father of a rightfully angry 16-year-old son and a grieving 20-year-old daughter. I was also broke, and this was during the worst economic recession of the past 50 years.
Fortunately, I had tools available to me from my audio career.
Previously, I had recorded, edited, and sold conference recordings put on by spiritual organizations. I have been extremely fortunate for the past twenty-plus years because I got to record and befriend many of the world’s leading spiritual thinkers from every major religion. I also had a Communications degree with a concentration in Psychology. So, if you combined my college education and the learning gained from all the spiritual thinkers I’d worked with, you’d think I should never have had a midlife crisis.
Blair in his recording studio July 2007.
I already knew most of everything I needed to learn to deal with the root causes of my emotional pain. I knew about this thing called “awareness,” of which all the spiritual thinkers talked. I also knew several of the psychological theories for navigating difficult emotions. Unfortunately, I had not put all the pieces together in such a way that I could avoid or even minimize my suffering. In other words, I was still asleep in my life.
Blair, Fr. Thomas Keating, and John Bickham 2005
The Universe was watching out for me, though.
When I hit my midlife crisis, slowly, all the spiritual teachers, philosophers, and professors’ messages about awareness started to make sense. And, as I rose out of depression and into my new life—built on awareness of my thoughts, emotions, and actions—I started to put the tools I’d learned into a functional toolbox and then use them. Now, over a decade later, I want to give these tools to you and hopefully help you make your life meaningful and peaceful.
I look forward to walking this path with you!
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.
~ Aristotle
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