We all face challenges, changes, stresses and losses in our lives at one time or another. Life offers these things whether we prepare for them or not. I personally experienced an avalanche of change this week in both my personal and professional life, and I am happy to report that I am moving through it.
On the positive side, I knew some of this change was coming. My daughter graduated from high school in June and we were delighted that she was accepted to her college of choice. She was packed and prepared to leave on August 21 without much drama or stress on our household. This being my husband’s most demanding season for work, we needed to say goodbye to her on campus a full 24 hours before the other parents left. She was clearly disappointed about that and it was sad for us too. We all accepted the situation and our feelings about it without resistence. As my husband and I left for home without her, we were peaceful. She would be fine because we had prepared her well to this. We got through it.
I also knew my son Dan would be leaving for college on August 26, transforming our home to an official “empty nest” again after 21 years as parents. I am realizing it is possible to feel emancipated and sad at the same time. Friends are flooding my email box and facebook wall with congratulations and suggestions, many of which involve glasses of wine.
Yes, celebration is in order…. but I am also reminded that I just read a statistic that indicated DUI rates in females are up 30% in the last year. Could it be because our US demographic trend places so many baby boomer women at home for the first time without their kids. Perhaps they don’t quite know what to do with themselves and wine is a way to numb the feelings? Many marriages fall apart at this stage of life as I am well aware through my coaching client case-files. Add to the mix menopause symptoms and it certainly doesn’t get any easier. I count my blessings that all the energy self-care therapies I have learned have allowed me to move through, without needing to numb the feelings. Thank goodness I have a strong and loving relationship with my husband, an essential part of my overall stability.
What I didn’t expect was that Inner Harmony Wellness Center would be closing at the end of August and that my office move was inevitable whether I liked it or not. I decided to move my office back to my home and completed the move on August 25. The complicated part of all of the “stuff” and needing to organize, sort and settle very quickly in the midst of all the other changes. The good news is that I have already had my first client session here, and it went extraordinarily well. I realize what a better practitioner I am today than I was when I began coaching from my home in 2005. Working here lowers my fixed costs and offers me lots more efficiency.
Last night offered me the opportunity to do one last EFT program at Inner Harmony. So many wonderful people attended and some exceptional teaching cases presented themselves for group healing. I leave this space knowing that the powerful bonds that developed there will live on in many forms.
I admit that my desk is a chaotic disaster and not something I would be proud for my readers or clients to see. I have decided to forgive myself for that. My desk is a reflection of how much I have handled this week and it is okay. I can trust that time will heal this situation too. I am moving through it.