Seasons Change... but do we?

I was having a conversation with a friend regarding our experiences in a season full of tension and challenge. She was voicing the things she wished were different and that she wanted, and I was voicing mine. There were hard decisions to make and consequences for each option. Tension grew as we covered specifics and at one point she said "This too shall pass..." 

I sat there and thought for a second. Eventually I replied , "But who will you be when it does?"

Who will you be when this current season transitions to a new one? Are you engaged? Allowing it to affect you and choosing to grow? Or have you chosen passive endurance... where we allow each moment to happen just waiting for it to be over?

Resilience is defined as endurance with direction. There is a need for endurance in our lives, we need stamina to meet the demands of living an influential and meaningful life. But when we lack direction and forget that what we're doing matters, we can begin to just exist... enduring the day to wake up the next morning and do it again. 

If this is you, it's okay! We need awareness before change can ever happen. Here's a little exercise to check in with yourself and remember that you're massively important to the world:

Ask yourself a few questions:

1. What were the expectations I had for my life at this point? Include the smallest and the most grand.

2. How do I feel about the way my life has turned out up until this point? Acknowledge a whole spectrum of feelings. If you're struggling for vocabulary, google the 'feeling wheel'... accurate words can help the heart be heard more clearly.

3. What do I love? What do I wish was different? Do I have the power, drive, means to make that happen? If not, engage with those feelings and give yourself and your body permission to process the reality of where you are.

The busiest seasons are the ones during which we can go days, weeks or months without honestly checking in with ourselves. The above questions have helped me to make small corrections in the midst of business, newness, or just the daily demands of life. They don't have to be huge, but even the little changes we make remind us that our choices, efforts and decisions direct the course of our lives! How cool that we have so much say!

Cheers to grabbing life by the horns and living it according to our desires and dreams!

Hugs,
Tess