The Gifts of Change
In 1998, my husband and I sold up a five-bedroomed home down to 8 suitcases, and moved to the United States. We had two small kids, a work visa and a few thousand dollars. We knew one person on the whole continent.
Oh and I should also mention, we ended up in Minnesota … and I’d never been below 40 degrees in my life.
I know about change.
What was fascinating to me was how differently we handled this shift compared to the other ex-pats in our group.
Whereas most of them were desperately homesick, struggling to find their feet and feel at home here, our little family thrived and flourished.
From observing how they (and later my clients) approached seismic life-changes, here’s what I’ve concluded that we did differently and what ultimately led to us creating our own American dream:
See the change as an opportunity to release old stuff.
When a master gardener prunes a rosebush, it looks almost ruthless. Every stray twig, even those that bloomed before, gets cut away, until all that’s left is the core plant.
The gardener knows that the roots are where the growth energy lies.
Change is life-pruning.
It’s your chance to get rid of clutter, worn-out ideas and toxic relationships. It’s a cosmic shedding of old skins and ties that bind.
It can be soul-stripping, humiliating, foundation-shaking.
But if we can focus on our core beingness, on the brilliance that is the stable, un-changeable essence of who we are, then we can find a way to bud in fresh places, and blossom where we least expect.
Stay present
Change is a very ‘now’ thing. It pulls (or sometimes, shoves) you into the present moment, and if you try to drag your past with you, it can be wounding and very painful.