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WHEELING -- It has been 25 years since Sheli Bernstein-Goff, a Wheeling-based clinical therapist who specializes in critical stress management, helped first responders in New York City just days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Bernstein-Goff was a volunteer with Green Cross, a group that helped first responders such as firefighters and others deal with post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Bernstein-Goff said since that time she has learned and continues to learn much about herself and how to help others deal with such tragedies.
"Til the day I die it was an honor, my honor to serve those who serve, period," she said.
Bernstein-Goff said 25 years later she sees all of life and all aspects of life differently.
"Balance, I used to see more as scales of justice. Now I see it much more like the ocean; we’re also made of water and it’s not necessarily about being stable or steady, it’s about learning to move with the tides. It goes in and out and internally our lives go with tides, too.
"I notice when I need to move or go with the flow. Losing balance does not mean that I’m weak. It simply means I’ve lost balance. The world is designed to unbalance us, rocking and rolling. I need to take a breath, smell a flower, notice a bee, pet my fur children and in those moments, bring myself back to a more balanced space."
She also has learned that "comfort and ease is not a destination, but a feeling." Our culture is constantly focused on going up, expansion, progress; however, going down is also part of life, she said.
"Going down is just as important as going up. We’ve learned that if our energy drops that there is something wrong with us … but that is half the cycle. It’s what the world is made to do," she said.
For example, society tends to focus on the new, renewal like in spring the plants coming up. But in the winter is when the roots get rest and get stronger.
"You have to have them all," she said of the seasons.