Every year, I have periods of ‘stuckness’.
Have you ever felt lost? I feel most lost when I feel ‘stuck’. Every year, I have periods of ‘stuckness’. Yet when I look closer, I see that ‘being stuck’ is a label I give to a natural part of life. It’s a time when not much happens. The anxiety comes when I think it should be otherwise. When I tell myself ‘I’m lost’. I start to force myself to work, to come up with ideas, and to make things happen.
And when things don’t change, I call it being ‘stuck’, ‘feeling lost’. As I write this, I’ve been in a ‘stuck’ period for the last few weeks. The difference is that I struggle less, because I’m beginning to let it be. I offer myself a slower pace, I offer myself acknowledgement of feeling ‘stuck’ or ‘lost’, I notice the sensations in my body, the thoughts and feelings that say that I’m lost and that something is wrong.
When I stay completely in this moment I discover there is no being ‘stuck’ or ‘lost’. There is only the label I give it, a label that I’ve invented based on what I think my life should be like. When I notice this going on, I breathe a deep sigh of relief; I offer myself a little soothing with my hand on my heart, I offer myself some compassion for this very human moment.
That doesn’t mean that the feelings go away. I might still feel the anxiety, but it doesn’t have a death grip on me anymore and I’m far less likely to struggle to make things different. It is these periods of my life when I feel ‘stuck’, ‘feel lost’ that have taught me the most about myself.
I’m reminded that life isn’t all about accomplishing things making my life line up with some idea I have about how it should be in this moment. Sometimes it’s about resting and letting things be. Can you relate?
With great warmth Heather
