Here and Now
It was 1:40am, hours after another curveball had been tossed into my life, when I found myself asking: why do things keep showing up in my life that are “obstacles” to the peaceful, fulfilling adventure that I envision for myself? I was not just struggling with why but also why now? Just when things seemingly started to calm down — get easier, lighter, better — do I keep getting pushed off track?
Then I had a realization. The inescapable truth is: I am not off track and there are no obstacles of circumstance, this is the track and I am the obstacle. This was the point of clarity that helped me to embody my spiritual truth and one of my course objectives in service: to help women see themselves as empowered and work with them to leverage their assets toward greater wellbeing.
Greater well-being is a lofty goal, but the science is pretty simple. We can increase our connection to others, augment our feelings of positivity, improve our physical and emotional health, all through elevating our consciousness of who we are and what is available to us. Then we take steps to use our new consciousness to maximize the benefits in our lives. For example:
I had a client last year who was struggling with feeling connected to their purpose in life and felt as though they were adrift both emotionally and spiritually. We talked about why having a purpose was important in their life. They identified that they use their purpose for making decisions, as a guide to direct their actions. Through a process of collaborative visualization they reconstructed some of the recent experiences in their life where they felt the most in alignment with their purpose. What they came to understand for themselves is that they missed having a consistent ritual in their life that would help them to be grounded in their purpose. In a subsequent session they discovered that the most purpose-grounding practice for them was to do yoga consistently. From that revelation they recommitted themselves to their yoga practice and reported a significant change in their perception and experience through the practice. This revelation shifted their mindset and allowed them to feel more connected to their partner, children, and work.
But back to my curveball. I looked at my response to the situation — to the obstacles at hand — and thought about which of my values were challenged. I then turned to my tools (books, people, writing exercises, and meditation) to remind myself of the bigger picture and to expose myself to a new possible solution. Here are the steps I took to address the situation at hand:
Affirm my values
Set boundaries that allow me to feel safe and provide me space to grow
Stay open-minded to the new options that were made available through that work
Are you at a point in your life where you feel disquieted by your current circumstances and want to begin to leverage all of the assets in your life toward a more authentic expression of yourself? If you resonate with this, here is some advice.
You’ve got to just start. Start here and now, on the track that you are on. There is no such thing as a “better” time. Waiting for things to be “normal” or “right” or “good” is only going to keep you from starting. None of those conditions will ever exist. THERE. WILL. ALWAYS. BE. SOMETHING.
So here I am — putting myself out there and answering the call I feel so strongly about — to serve others on their journey toward living a life that is an expression of their deepest beliefs. Throughout this blog you will learn about my lived experience, the science I have explored and leveraged for greater well-being, and some of the tools I use in working with others. I’ll also share some of my journey that brought me here. Thank you for following along.