We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us ~ Joseph Campbell.
These words often form the pretext of discussions I have had with coachees as they experience life circumstances that have presented unexpectedly… a divorce, a job loss, an illness, a change that they had not anticipated. Knowing that there is a greater consciousness, telling us when to let go, toward a new road.
Being led, by circumstances, to make changes, for better conditions, with the right choices, up ahead.
And it forms the underlying premise for a heroic journey, of moving from the known, into the unknown, letting go to a process, toward a new metaphoric home.
And while our Unus Mundus (One World) is also going through a larger scale heroic transition through the unknown, as we attempt to build a new earthly home, I am sure that each of you has had an individual story, or a few, over the past year too, no doubt exacerbated, and weighted, by the complexities of managing with COVID happenings in your surroundings.
I found myself in one such story. Moving, physically, to a new home. Somewhat of a mini-crisis as it was fast and unexpected. And a challenging proposition, during lockdown conditions as I was managing through the many strict health orders, co-ordinating services with several parties, and creating a re-starting, while organising other commitments around it.
And while working through an unexpected crisis is an uncomfortable challenge, I stay aware that the Chinese have two symbols for the word Crisis: Danger, and Opportunity. Which is how it can feel to walk the tightrope of embarking on an unexpected journey.
As I think about the threats and crises we have been experiencing collectively, and those we may have been managing individually, we are constantly offered chances to frame the process, of danger and opportunity, periodically as it is happening.
Making choices as optimally as possible as they are presenting.
Which reinforces the importance of self-regulating and self-care through any stress and anxiety that may be presenting in the mix of proceeding. Responding rather than reacting for better alignment in decision-making. Taking tangible, optimal, steps daily while not knowing where it could be ending, brings many questions, contemplations, reflections and decisions in that period of uncertainty between leaving an old life, and arriving.
Trust the Process are three words I sometimes suggest to clients. And I have lived them well over the last few months. For the life that was waiting to arrive.
And now, I have arrived. At my new home. A lovely, light filled abode. Not one I was originally planning, as I had other intentions if COVID had not been a part of the mix in my decision making. Yet the wisdom of arriving, Here Now, has become evident to me, as I can see that my next stage will be better served by my new surroundings.
It feels right. And perhaps it was choosing me, from an earlier dream, on a walkabout when I was discovering environments locally, recalling a memory when I once said to myself, wouldn’t it be just gorgeous to live around here.
I Am, Now Here. At my happy ending. Which has been waiting. A hindsight view that is gratifying.
And I am relishing in that same feeling, of satisfaction, that I witness and share with my clients when they have arrived, at the end of their journeys, resolved, improved, and on to a new adventurous story. Knowing that the mandala of wholeness circle always then begins again, in the dynamic change process of advancement, with another chance for a new beginning enhancement.
SaraSwati Shakti
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SaraSwati Shakti is an integrative leadership coach who specialises in assisting people to manage change and transition gracefully toward a new, purposeful and satisfying life. A qualified and experienced psychotherapist and coach with years of leading transformational change in her own life and in fostering improvements in the lives of others.
