It’s Valentine’s Day. I hope it’s a happy one for you regardless of your relationship status.
So many single folks can feel left out on this day, yet the truth is being in a relationship doesn’t guarantee happiness or love. I’m a therapist and relationship coach and work with lots of couples in distress.
I’ve had many young single people tell me they have never seen a happy relationship or marriage and have no role model for what that looks like.
This was shocking to me the first time I heard it. Yet, I kept hearing this over and over and the reality sunk in. Relationships can be tough. Finding real, lasting, true love is a blessing, not a given. My young clients often feel doubtful they will ever find a happy marriage for themselves, yet they continue to bravely look while working on their blocks, doubts and fears.
I listened to a call by one of my mentor coaches this week, Martha Beck, in which she talked about the rapidly accelerating pace of change that is taking place in the world, and in all of our lives, like never before. There is a quickening going on and we are finding situations in our lives collapsing in a way that we are being called to reinvent ourselves, over and over, often in profound and dramatic ways.
I recently attended a conference with my mentor coach and 150 women who are currently taking her year-long coach training program. My mentor is a highly successful, well-known, accomplished, transformational coach who teaches the business, mindset, and coaching skills to create a thriving business in this field. She has developed a multi-million dollar coaching company, which is rare in this field, knows what it takes to do so, and teaches by example as any true mentor does.
Over the years of working with clients as a psychotherapist and life coach, I have witnessed many people go through periods of time in which they felt everything was falling apart. Life is full of unexpected losses, changes, and transitions such as an illness, a job loss, a divorce, a cross-country move, a major financial setback, etc. However, there are those times in life in which multiple uncontrollable events may be happening all at once that push you to the edge of your ability to cope and keep you from wanting to get out of bed in the morning.