ABC...X

In 1949 a man with the name of Reuben Hill created a model in order to study the stressors that families experience in times of war. He name this model "ABCX."

Actual event
Both resources and responses
Cognition
 eXperience

We each are going to experience challenges and difficulties in our lives. What may be a crisis for you may not be one for another and vise versa. The question that comes up is: How am I (or how are we) going to get through this? Another question may be: "Shall I falter, or shall I finish?" - President Thomas S. Monson; Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

President Monson also said, "When the pathway of life takes a cruel turn, there is the temptation to ask the question 'Why me?' At times there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel, no sunrise to end night's darkness. We feel encompassed by the disappointment of shattered dreams and the despair of vanished hopes. We join in uttering the biblical plea, 'Is there no balm in Gilead?' We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. We are inclined to view our own personal misfortunes through the distorted prism of pessimism. We become impatient for a solution to our problems, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required."

Full talk (I highly recommend watching it)

To go back to the ABCX model - it allows us the opportunity to look at the (A) event , decide how the our (C) cognition (the way we think about it) is going to affect the way we (B) respond, and, overall, help us choose what we're going to take away from it (X).

Effectively coping in crisis is something that I have been trying to work on for a while now. I used to believe in what President Monson refers to as the "distorted prism of pessimism" - I think we all have. However, I have come to learn and realize how much that negatively impacts our lives when we go through it believing that.

If there is anything that I have learned in life - if at Judgment Day I'm standing before God and He asks me what I've learned, I would tell Him "You will never have a bad experience without something magical somewhere inside it."

When I learned this truth, it completely changed the way I look at the trials I am presented with. Each crisis that is put into our lives allows us an opportunity to make a choice - and so I ask you to make a choice:

1. How are you going to respond to crisis?

2. Are you going to falter, or are you going to finish?

Avec Amour,

Elisse