You have been on my mind and heart so much. I hope this finds you well and safe and cozied-in with everything you need.
What a crazy, surreal time we are living in. It feels like a strange dream, doesn’t it? Life has changed so quickly and so profoundly, and we are all experiencing it TOGETHER, which is extraordinary. I have a lot to say to you about this today, and I’ve been feeling especially thankful for the lessons I’ve learned in the last 2 years, when my own life as I knew it fell to pieces. I feel like these last years have given me a unique perspective on what’s happening in the world right now — as well as what is to come for all of us as we recover from this radical shake up that is happening and will continue to progress in the coming months. So, I’d love to share these thoughts with you today.
And before I begin, I just want to look you right in the eyes, right now and tell you that WE ARE GOING TO BE OKAY. All of us. We are going to be okay individually and as a culture. Lots of scary and devastating things are happening right now; this is absolutely true; but the resilience and strength of your human spirit is going to rise up and SHINE to meet this challenge. We were made for times like these. We rally; we figure it out; we remember what has always been meant for us. We do best when we go back to the simple truth that we are one big human family who all need each other. If for nothing else, to simply remember our interconnection — that what we do in the world affects all of us; that we need each other’s careful thought about THE WHOLE HUMAN FAMILY to keep us all well in body and spirit. We matter to each other. In times like these, we matter so much to each other that lives literally depend on us remembering how much we matter to each other.
So, as I’m sharing what I want to share with you today, I want you to remember what I said at the beginning of the last paragraph — that we are going to be okay. We are going to be okay no matter what happens next. We are doing some difficult things right now, social distancing and just getting through this stress and anxiety, and it might last a while, but we are going to be okay. Things probably aren’t going to go back to how they once were. We are going to have to figure out new and better ways to do things, and we are going to be okay. We will even lose some beloved human beings in our human family, and yet we will be okay. Lots of people are going to have to change their lifestyle because of the financial impact this is going to have, and yes, we will be okay there too.
That doesn’t mean it’s not going to be difficult, it doesn’t mean it’s not going to make us cry and scream. When things are happening that are out of our control, and there is not a way to change those things — WE, personally, have to be what changes to meet those unchanging things. We get to become stronger. We get to become more focused on what matters most to us. We get to reprioritize and let things go that were killing us, or adding destructive weight to our lives, or holding us back from what matters most to us.
Here’s what I think, my friends. I think this time in history — this time in the world, this time in our communities, this time in our families, THIS TIME IN OUR OWN PERSONAL LIFE JOURNEY — is a tremendous opportunity for us to reset. It is a MASSIVE opportunity where, in an unexpected and historic way, WE ARE ALL DOING THIS TOGETHER. In my opinion, we are crazy if we try to make things go back to how they used to be in our culture. Too many of us were being run ragged, forced to survive by going on auto-pilot, completely asleep in our own lives, because those lives had been too stressful and painful to be fully awake for. We have been a culture that leaves each individual to constantly look for ways to NUMB how stressful and pressure-filled life has become. We are a culture that has left each person torn away from what matters most to them, just to be able to survive the next day. And now, here we are, in our homes in the quiet (most of us) left to think through how we could do things differently when we emerge from the storm shelter of this pandemic.
Life as we know it has broken to pieces. I think it breaks into smaller and smaller pieces every day; all of us, all over the world.
And here’s what is happening — we are literally breaking back together.
We had to break to come back together; personally and as a global family.
So, I just want to offer you up the steps that I had to (and continue to) go through from when my own life was breaking to pieces over the last few years — when I PERSONALLY broke to pieces. Now that this seems to be happening all around me, I just want to give you some things to consider. I want to share every single thing I learned with you. I will be going into great depth with these steps in the Soul School Bundle for April, but this is a sneak peek for you to think about...
When your life is falling apart and YOU are falling apart, here’s what I’ve learned:
1. You’ve got to admit that things really are breaking - or even that YOU are breaking in many ways. You’ve got to admit it and not go into denial or try to pretend like this is not happening. Even if YOUR life seems to be unaffected right now, millions of lives all around you are NOT okay. When our society breaks, part of us breaks too. It’s okay!! We are going to be okay, and maybe even better than ever.
2. When you realize that life as you have known it is in pieces, the next step is to look at each remaining piece carefully and honestly. Are there pieces that you love that seem broken beyond repair? Are there pieces that are SO HEAVY you’d love to just leave them on the floor and not make them a part of your life moving forward? Are there pieces of your life that were not good for you? Look at each piece of your life honestly, mercifully and POWERFULLY. YOU HAVE THE POWER to decide what you will do with these pieces, and you do not have to bring them back into your life moving forward.
3. Next, pick up the pieces you still want. You may find over this strange and unique time that’s been forced upon you, that there is very little that truly matters to you. Imagine how peaceful and meaningful your life could be if you rebooted with only the pieces that matter most to you?
4. Now you’ve got to honor and release the pieces you don’t want anymore. This is complicated. What I want to remind you about here is that sometimes we have to let go of things that we deeply love. Sometimes the things that were killing us or burning us out are things that we enjoy and love SO MUCH, but we have to let them go so that we can be who we were meant to be. We have to let them go so that we can focus on those pieces in #3 that we identified as the most important things to us. This is going to require grieving. It’s going to require discipline. It’s going to be hard to do. And you are going to be okay!
5. Now that you’ve identified what you want and what you don’t want to keep, you get to slowly, carefully, mindfully, PERSONALLY and powerfully start to put yourself and your life back together. Let there be some holes, let there be some space. Let the “rooms” of your soul-house be empty for a while. Let yourself rebuild the life you most want. Let yourself change, and grow and BECOME. Let yourself cry about it. Let yourself dream and be excited about it. MAKE SPACE TO LET YOURSELF COME BACK TOGETHER IN A WHOLE NEW WAY.
The last few years, these are the steps that I’ve had to take. My life blew to smithereens; pieces all over the place. It proved to be a tremendous opportunity; a painful, beautiful, miraculous opportunity; one that I would not have chosen for myself, but one that I am SO GRATEFUL FOR.
I’m here to walk you through all that I’ve learned about it.
Here’s what I want you to know, friend. If you’re in a place where you’re looking at “losing” a whole lot of what you’ve built, saved, gathered, created, sacrificed-for, invested in . . . it really does feel like a punch in the gut. IT HURTS. But I PROMISE YOU that you are going to be okay. You are going to find the best, strongest, most courageous and authentic version of yourself. She will finally be uncovered when so much of what was covering her up gets stripped away over the coming months and years. It’s going to feel like raw skin is being exposed, when in fact it is the most radiant and beautiful TRUE version of YOU.
It is going to be okay. YOU are going to be okay.
We are all gonna do this together. I am rooting for you, and I am going to push you and challenge you over the coming months, because I KNOW WHO YOU ARE and I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF. When you forget, I will remind you.
I love you, my dear friends.
Let’s stay close during this time . . . come see me in the Soul School Facebook group. I will be starting lots of conversations for us soon.
