When we're navigating change, our nervous system can get overwhelmed with too much, too soon, too fast. This is especially the case when navigating transitions on multiple life fronts at once. So, my first invitation is to go slow and to pick an area of your life to focus on where the transition is particularly major. The three areas I propose include:
1. Self-discovery & Community-building: how we relate to ourselves and each other
2. Career & Leadership Development: how we act as leaders in our personal and professional lives
3. Health & Self-advocacy: how we relate to our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health*
(*I first learned about the many layers of wellbeing when I was studying to become a Yoga teacher. To learn more about the depth of Yoga teachings, I recommend reading The Heart of Yoga by T.K.V. Desikachar. I later found out different expressions of these teachings can also be found in cultures and symbols across the world, including the Indigenous Medicine Wheel. For more information on what the Medicine Wheel is, visit this link For more information on how to use the Medicine Wheel in wellness specifically, visit this link I share these resources with deep gratitude for the teachers who first shared them with me.)
So, did you pick one area to start with? Great. Next piece: when we talk about transitions in any realm, we're also talking about birth/death cycles to some degree. On the one hand, it can be hard to recognize or admit that that's what's happening. On the other, navigating transitions can become much easier when we call a spade a spade. Based on the life area of your choosing and to whatever degree the life transition there represents a birth/death cycle in your life, I invite you to explore these three questions:
1. Is there something that I need to let go of here and how might I mourn it?
2. Is there something that I need to notice here and how might I celebrate it?
3. Is there something that I'm already doing that will get me closer to where I want to be and how might I maintain this effort?
Once you've answered these questions in the life area you chose, I invite you to set some time aside to create space for an intentional experience of letting go, noticing, and/or planning. Activities will look different based on what you're navigating. The goal is to create an opportunity to allow yourself to sit with and hold space for the transition instead of ending up with mental, emotional, physical, and/or spiritual whiplash when the change surprises you all at once.
At the same time, depending on the year you've had, you might feel like there are things to mourn, celebrate, and/or continue doing in different life areas. Personally, that's the type of year I've had. To offer examples for all three areas, I'll share what I'm committing to this season:
1. Self-discovery & Community-building:
Mourning: journaling on certain relationships and writing letters that I will not send.
Celebrating: writing thank you letters to the people who held my hand and my heart this year.
Maintaining effort: writing a few thank you notes a week, being flexible about how long it takes, and recruiting support with mailing logistics.
2. Career & Leadership Development:
Celebrating: going into Apamaté's second year by noticing how hard I've worked to create a business based on curiosity, loving kindness, safety, and ease.
Maintaining effort: celebrating big and small milestones with our community on social media over the next couple of weeks.
3. Health & Self-advocacy:
Maintaining effort: continuing to access therapy, trauma-informed coaching, Yoga therapy, and nourishing relationships to maintain the mental/emotional/spiritual fitness I need to hold space for us and for my own processes. Continuing to come back to my Morning Pages and my Yoga mat will also support that.
At the end of the day, our experiences are often be universal *and* our ways of processing them are the most helpful when we tailor them to us. Let me know how this exercise goes for you, you brave human.
For coaching support on navigating transitions in any of life's seasons, let's connect !