What is it about your life you wish was different?
The shift we are being called to make and the tools to make it happen
If you were with me last week please accept my deeply felt thanks for holding me up. Even though I had the comments turned off on this post I still received many supportive messages and a lot of love. I am very touched❤
Our world is in a heck of a situation and if we want to DO something about it it starts at home, deep in the heart of ourselves. Staying glued to the news feeds the fear machine on Earth, whereas making an effort to move toward personal wholeness and responsibility will create change that has a ripple effect.
As we move into the last part of the year The Bright Life will be focusing on how we can create change in our daily lives -perhaps it’s in our hearts or it could be our habits. Maybe our body is crying for attention or our lack of discipline is derailing us? It all works together to create a greater whole.
We don’t need fixing but perhaps we can look inward to see the shift our deepest self is calling us to. True change, whether it’s healthier eating habits or going back to school, requires a foundation of preparedness to make it stick so the next few weeks will lay the groundwork for whatever it is you want to do.
Coming up I will look at the science of change, just as I will discuss our soul’s yearning. We will contemplate and we will plan, there will be special guests and there will be presentations…all this so when the new year begins you are ready to cross the threshold into a different way of being.
What is it about your life you wish was different?
If you are new to the Bright Life community I wholeheartedly welcome you! I am SO glad you’re here❤ Every second week I create a post, especially for my paid subscribers. Their support allows me the opportunity to be a little more vulnerable because it’s a private space and we really get each other. If this interests you I invite you to join us, that would be awesome!
Honeybun, I wanted to talk to you today instead of writing. It felt like the thing to do. As I mentioned to the masses in the first part of this post I am gearing up to talk about change because I want each of us to shift our well-being into high gear. Between now and the end of 2023 we will learn how to embody whatever transformation our deepest self is calling us to explore. We will prepare so you have all the tools you need to show up for yourself consistently. You can consider it a preparation class for the change your best self is calling you to make.
Here is my little chat with you, let’s pretend we are in the room together because I wish we were!
LIFE STUFF
If a life lesson comes around for the second or tenth time it doesn’t mean you’re a failure, far from it! Every time it shows up you are peeling away a layer and getting closer to your truth so stick it out Sweetie!
I appreciated Jennifer Louden’s take on this. She says when a lesson shows up again it calls us to be compassionate with ourselves and to approach the situation with a touch of grace.
Just because we want to change something about our life doesn’t mean we are a failure, nor do we suck if we find ourselves stuck in the same argument again. It’s all carrying us closer to our true selves, even though it seems tricky to see while the situation is unfolding.
Notice the whispers of yourself. Pay attention to the clues that show up in your environment. What conversations are you having in your head and with others? All of this will lead you to evolve. I look forward to taking a deep dive with you.
xoxo Donna
P.S. What big changes have you made in your life so far? Are you glad you did it?
Donna, how dare you ask two HUGE questions in one post! Is this an essay contest? 😁
"What about my life do I wish was different" is a very loaded question because I feel like every single thing that brings us to where we are was necessary, whether we like it or not. Answering the question goes against the rules of gratitude that we're supposed to have for what we've got in life. My REAL answer? I'd change literally everything right now except my dog. But unfortunately we can't bring back dead people nor turn clocks back 20-30 years to fix what we broke.
What changes am I making right now? I'm starting from scratch yet again. I was terminated from my job in August, at the age of 50, right after I fractured my knee. I've spent the summer gaining weight (from lack of mobility due to the injury) and depleting my savings trying to survive. When you're freaking out about money it's impossible to have other goals! But!!!! I'm still here, writing, dog-moming, existing, and I still have a sense of humor which counts for a lot! And I've lost one pound lol. That's something!
I love this theme Donna, and I imagine that it will make for a very fruitful season for you and your readers. I've put a lot of energy into making changes, learning to change, learning to move intentionally into the unknown—and how not just _doing_ but also *stopping* doing certain things in life can be a very powerful thing. Of course that's fairly obvious (at least in retrospect) with addiction, for example, but less obvious when it comes to other things.
You asked the question in your previous post about some of the changes you've made yourself, and the changes I've made would take a book to enumerate — oh, right, I wrote that book! → https://anordinarydisaster.com — but if I were to make a list it might begin like this:
* learning foreign languages (Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, French)
* 10+ years of therapy
* 10+ years of group communication work
* building, and then selling my business
* becoming a runner
* learning to Kitesurf, and becoming a sponsored athlete and professional guide
* learning to fly paragliders -- and then choosing to stop flying many years later
* working with many coaches, for sports and personal growth
* changing my relationship with alcohol from drinking nearly every day to drinking almost never
* learning pilates and practicing that regularly
* stopping nail biting (tricky one! hypnosis helped initially)
* mens work, mens groups and putting energy into intentionally building relationships with other men
* a year of no relationships, no dating, no sex
* some work with psychedelics -- and getting clear that's not the path for me
* quit "romance"
* quit "shopping"
* reduced caffeine intake (I like my coffee black, 1/4 to 1/3 caf)
* experimenting with meditation
* exercise almost every day now
* learning that discipline is not "to" me but by me for for me.
It used to be that the answer to "What is it about your life you wish was different?" was "just about everything," and in fact one of my main personal mottoes at one time was "Change Everything." Now, the answer is "nothing".