It has been a week of witnessing the dichotomy between the sheer terror and the joyful hope of change. A week of asking clients to trust that if they feel the fear and choose change anyway there is light waiting for them. The fear of the storm that must be felt at the same time as having the courage for riding out and fighting through the storm, along with the bravery for the calm after it.
The work my clients do each week will be the scariest and most difficult of their lives. And yet it can, and will be the work that changes everything. The work that leads them back to their true, whole, healthy and authentically happy selves.
Even though we know we want, deserve and can do, be and have better, we are so fearful of it and scared to death of what it will take to get it.
So we settle and stand in our own way because it feels safer, even in the dark misery of it.
I know, because I did it.
I know, because I didn’t define my rock bottom for myself and life did it for me.
I know, because I’ve finally gotten out of my own way and fought for myself.
I know, because I felt the fear and I chose recovery anyway.
Our recoveries will all be different, but have no doubt, eventually we will each need to choose to recover. Because life is beautifully flawed and heart breakingly difficult.
But through the fear and the work of the storm, after we make the choice to change, lies the calm and brilliance of recovery.
Because we must be afraid and brave at the same time as Brené Brown has found in her research. We must feel the fear and choose ourselves in order to fight the fight of recovery.
I have my story, myself, to show as evidence. And I will model that every minute of all of my days.
I will model that it isn’t easy; that there are setbacks and it definitely doesn’t feel fair most of the time.
I will model that on the other side of the storm is ever upward light.
And, all I can hope and work for is that my clients, and my loved ones, see my fight and my light every day.
Because through me, I hope they can trust and have faith that I will fight alongside them. Constantly reminding them that their light is worth both riding out and fighting through the storm because the ever upward calm of recovery is worth every raindrop and thunder strike.