Navigating Transitions

As the weather becomes cooler and the teachers and children return to school, you may find yourself struggling with the transition. Learning to manage transitions is essential to your emotional well-being.

Step 1: Be Patient.
Be patient as you adapt to changes in the schedule. Allow yourself some extra time so as not to feel rushed or harried, and therefore, irritable. Understand that transitions are necessary and not meant to defeat you. Go with the Flow.

Step 2: Accept Change
The truth is that those who struggle in times of transition are often those who resist change. They prefer to keep things the same and predictable. It is thought to feel safer, for it keeps everything in the comfort zone of familiarity. Of course, life does not stay the same. Accept that change is inevitable. Remind yourself that you are capable of handling change. Eventually the changes that you are experiencing in the now will become familiar.

Step 3: Get Grounded
Schedule a counseling session or better yet, attend a Weekend Workshop offered at Avenues Counseling Center. Let go of fears that hold you hostage to resistance and begin to embrace a life of joy and spontaneity.



 

Why Worry?

Do you recognize your worrier within?

But why do you worry?

      Because you are afraid of the outcome?
         Because it is how you show that you care?
            Because you feel inadequate or powerless over a situation?
               Because you don't know what else to do?

To alleviate worry is simple. Take action instead! For example, if you are worried about not having enough money, write down your expenses and create a budget. Action provides you with something concrete and constructive while you await the outcome. In other words, it gives you something tangible to do.

Why Worry, when you can take Action instead!  

Options for Personal Transformation

There are 3 options for Personal Transformation:

1.)                        Breakup (relational)

2.)                        Breakdown (physical, emotional, financial)

3.)                        Breakthrough (Transformation)

 

Breakups can turn into breakdowns. It is as if you need to push away a loved one in order to breakdown physically, emotionally or financially. After all, you don’t want to hurt them. Perhaps, subconsciously, you don’t want to take them down with you.

Breakdowns occur when you struggle physically, emotionally or financially. You may get sick or injured, feel depressed or anxious, or face financial difficulties.  Breakdowns can become breakthroughs. You can get to the other side. You can learn something about yourself that you wouldn’t have known, had it not been for the breakdown. You can learn that you are strong, capable, fiscally responsible, happy, or confident.

A Breakthrough is when you push through your feelings of insecurity and inadequacy to emerge more self-aware, more self-reliant, or more capable. You transform much like the caterpillar that becomes the butterfly. As the caterpillar, you can only recognize the pain of feeling trapped, stuck, and uncomfortable.  You wonder if you will survive the pain that sometimes accompanies transformation.  And then something magical happens. What you no longer need falls away, and you are left with what you do need, although it may appear quite different than what you had previously known. Transformation has occurred, and suddenly you have so much more than you previously thought possible.   

Regardless of the route you take, may you appreciate the transformation that comes. 

   

Live in the Now

The only time that you have is now. You cannot change the past and you cannot predict the future. To live in the now, is to experience the present. After all, to live in the past brings sadness. To live in the future brings anxiety. To live in the now brings peace. It is in the now that you have the greatest potential for achieving extraordinary things. Place your energy in today, into this moment of time. In doing so, you will not have any regrets, as you will not have to grieve the moment once it is passed. You lived it consciously. You enjoyed it. You made the most of it. You relished in the time, the person or the experience. As it passes, you move into the next moment with gratitude and excitement.  Live now.

                                                   I choose to live in the now.

Courage

Do you have the necessary courage to look within? As humans, we would prefer to change anything and everything on the outside, while completely avoiding the feelings on the inside. We attribute feelings of anxiety, depression and physical symptoms to external factors, such as family history or a change in seasons.  We take medication to alleviate the pain and discomfort of the symptoms, without addressing the cause. It takes courage to look inside and acknowledge feelings of hurt, disappointment, fear, or grief. These are the typical emotions that underlie depression and anxiety.  Sadly, some people believe that they will always have to suffer from the long term effects of unexpressed and squelched emotions. It is not true.  These emotions can be healed if you have the courage to go beyond the wall of suffering and reach understanding. Often people who suffer from depression and anxiety are eager to heal the symptoms, but lack the knowledge to do so. When I offer the solution to attend one of the many personal growth weekends, I am met with a surprising and perhaps fearful look. Again, people would prefer to change their circumstances, then to go away for a powerful weekend of transformation. Some people are afraid of the actual work, while others are afraid of the group experience. They are afraid of exposure, of others knowing their struggles. These are the struggles they try to keep concealed. The weekends of healing are not as scary as one may think. It is actually the most rewarding experience and opens you up to greater joy and abundance. Today, I wish for you courage to move beyond your struggle and heal your emotions.