15/10/2023
Real talk for whoever needs to hear this today.
Over the past few years since my marriage ended I have undergone a journey of self-exploration and understanding. It has been eye-opening, liberating, difficult, uncomfortable and painful at times. It is a process that I accept to be life-long, and I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way.
I didn’t always want to know myself. I avoided looking at the ways I show up for myself and others. In fact, I often hid behind the stories I told myself about the people and relationships in my life because those stories fit my desired narrative and suited my purpose. It felt better to be the righteous one, the wronged one, the victim, or the “good guy” than it did to take a closer look and understand why there were persistent patterns in my life that I seemed unable to break.
I could have stayed stuck there and, for years, I did. But once I hit 40, and my marriage was over, I decided I was done with hiding. I realized that my way of living was not serving me. I wanted to live out the rest of my “wild and precious” life with wisdom and grace, and to model that for my children. For me, it started with therapy, then attending retreats and workshops, hiring a coach and, ultimately, becoming certified to coach others. Taking these steps 100% changed my life for the better.
If you are experiencing problems in your relationships, whether they be with your partner, children, friends, family- co-workers or others, you have to start looking inward instead of outward if you want the change you seek. Period. There is no way around it; the only way to the other side is to go through it. Blaming others or any external condition for how we feel may seem like the answer, but this mindset does not serve us. The patterns we’ve adopted follow us from relationship to relationship, unless we make the choice (and it is a choice) to do something about them.
We can’t see the way without guidance. No one taught us how to do this work when we were young. We can start by reading books, listening to uplifting podcasts, journaling, meditating, and/or finding a therapist, coach or mentor to help us in the areas where we are feeling stuck.
Once on the path to self-discovery and awareness, there is so much power there. We have the power to change our generational patterns and to do things differently for ourselves and our children.
I can never un-know what I now know about myself. In a way, that is a gift. In another way it is a commitment that challenges me every day to keep looking in the mirror, to continue to take accountability for my thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and to manifest the things I want in life.
This is a group of very powerful women. I encourage all of us to harness that power and use it to make positive changes in our lives and the lives of others, and to continue to build each other up.
My two cents.