How to feel powerful in the in-between
Sometimes we voluntarily choose change.
We’re ready to up-level in some way. We want to try something new. We desire a change of scenery, or we opt to step into the unknown because in our hearts we just know we must.
We know it’s time, and the time is now. We leap… and change follows.
At other times change is “thrust” upon us.
In those more unexpected moments, we’re given an opportunity.
We can react, defend, shrink, cling, and blame — I am a bit of an expert at this ;)
Or we can respond, grow, shed, rise, and even, sometimes, give thanks.
With everything that’s happening in our world and in our lives today, it’s normal to feel all the above.
To feel scared yet somehow calm, protective yet unexpectedly expansive, to want to hide while also feeling ready to show up more fully than ever before.
That’s because we’re in what I call “the in-between”.
None of us are where we once were. Where we once were is a place, we are not, can not return to.
But we aren’t yet where we are going, either.
We’re in-between. Mid-shift. Changing, in motion, in flux.
Where is this shift taking us? I think it’s still emerging and defining itself for us collectively. In the meanwhile, it is showing up in unique ways in each of our individual lives.
What we do know about this shift is that it’s uncomfortable. Because we want to see, we want to know, we want to feel in control, and we want to be at choice!
Ah, but many of us are going places we’ve never been before. And so, we can’t know. We can’t see.
We can only feel our way forward and meet what is emerging.
What I’m interested in here today is how you are showing up for this shift, and the in-between place you are currently in — however it has arrived in your life.
Are you in protect and defend mode? Trying to hold fast to what was? Wanting to assign fault to who and what you can because it is changing and falling away, and it feels scary?
Or are you leaning more heavily towards voluntarily letting go? Turning towards the new? Adjusting as you go? Allowing something fresh to emerge in its place?
There are ways to feel empowered as you navigate this time of upheaval, unpredictability, and change. You can call upon what I call The 4 Allies to help you feel powerful and at choice when you’re in the belly of the beast of change:
1) Curiosity. Instead of going into fear or panic, can you get curious? Ask questions? Take a deeper look at whatever is happening from a place of inner stillness and interest? Take a step back and see if you can see a bigger picture? Curiosity is a powerful key to awakening, enlivening, and living itself.
2) Care. Tend to yourself. Fill your cup. Offer patience and attention to your needs, wants, and desires. Extend kindness, generosity, and love to yourself in all ways. Then your resiliency will flourish, everything will feel more manageable. As a bonus, you will be more able to give care to others, too.
3) Creativity. When what we’ve known has or is falling apart, creativity is born. It is necessary to find a new way, to become someone new. All is, you are being created in the moment. Ask creativity to join you, to show you another way, to walk with you on this road of discovery. How can you show up differently? See things with fresh eyes?
4) Devotion. Be intentional in your choices, your interactions with others, your self-talk, and your daily actions. In all you do, let your heart lead. Let your life, and all that is changing inside of it, be held as something precious and sacred. Because it is. You are. Be devoted to the seeing and treasuring sacredness of your experience, and your life.
You could also look at what I’ve written here and be 100% correct in thinking that the only constant is change. Because change is constant. We either go with the changes that are taking place, or we resist them.
Where we resist change, stagnation appears. Where there is stagnation, vitality gets obscured. Life force becomes obstructed. Change allows there to be movement, flow, and life itself.
I know I don’t have to tell you which choice will be easier on you in the short and long run… ;)
I also know that choosing to go with the flow isn’t always an easy thing to do.
For now, I offer you this fresh perspective on change. Rather than seeing this shift and in-between place as something to avoid or abhor, you could choose to see it as simply what is.
You could choose to see it as something that you get to align with and show up for. Something that you get to grow with and respond to by rising to meet it.
Because really, we are always in the in-between. Always changing, always in flux, in perpetual motion and on the move.
Call in The 4 Allies. They will show you how change and shifts and the in-between places can be something to honor, and even celebrate.
Originally published on https://aliciamorrow.com/