I was recently asked to write a chapter for a book called, Dare to be Authentic:Learning to Trust Yourself. While I did not know of the woman doing the book project when she approached me, I looked over her previous two books, had a conversation with her and said, “Yes”.
Given that I had just moved across country to Denver from Providence, RI, and walked away from my RI-based thriving psychotherapy and life coaching practice, I was certainly practicing daring to be authentic and trusting myself. To then have this woman find my LinkedIn profile and approach me to join her book project seemed a bit serendipitous to say the least.
I love it when life lines up like that. It feels like a confirmation that I am heading in the right direction and receiving a nudge to keep going. It reminds me to trust life and be true to my deep desires and yearnings.
My recent experience of moving across country and starting my life over in a new location has been a lesson in trusting myself and life. It has also been a lesson in trusting in my ability to navigate both the challenges and opportunities of major change and transformation.
When navigating life’s big transitions, how can we all learn to trust more in life? What have I learned so far?
I’ve had a strange assignment the past seven years. It was a tough one of going into the darkness and chaos of having my life fall apart on so many levels I didn’t recognize myself or my life anymore. My self-identity was battered and bruised. I went through a divorce. I found myself living somewhere that didn’t feel like home on any level.
I’ve been working with a client for several weeks now who is in an ambivalent marriage. One of the ways he deals with it is by having affairs. He saw a therapist prior to me who actually supported this behavior and saw it as a way to explore his feelings and help him decide if he wanted to stay in his marriage or not. Several years later, he’s still doing the same behavior and is as stuck as ever.
We all want to create changes in our lives. I listen to people’s dreams and desires all week long. Some of them are very inspiring and other’s not so much. I’m always curious what makes one person really want to go for their dreams and another simply want to maintain the status quo with perhaps a little tweak.
It seems like half the clients I spoke with last week told me how overwhelmed they are. When I asked what was going on I heard about sick friends dying, fear of job loss, relationship break-ups, divorce dramas and financial strain.