Getting Back to the Way Things Were

There is so much uncertainty going on right now. One of the things that I have been hearing is the voice that sounds something like, “I can’t wait to get back to the way things were. If only we could just get back.” That might be getting back to raising my family the way I was raising them, getting back to building my business the way I was building it before all of this happened, or just getting back to enjoying my life or the parties or the social gatherings or whatever it was that I was enjoying.

I was thinking about this the other day, when I heard that sentiment expressed again, perhaps this is the risk of our time too – that we have this yearning for things to return to the way they were, especially if life was fairly good, fairly eventful, fairly productive, fairly enriching, fairly stable. There is a desire just to get back to that.

But in that there is a loss of a recognition of what all of this turmoil and disruption is saying to us, and the potential to overlook the opportunity that’s here. What I’m really hearing in this voice, when I listen deeply, is a desire to know how to navigate through these times with greater ease and joy. People don’t want to feel what they are feeling; they want to feel what they used to feel when life was ‘fairly good.’

So perhaps it’s not about going back, that is just a reflective reaction because we have never been through anything like this. Perhaps the question people are asking is, how do I navigate these tumultuous times with greater ease, so that I don’t feel so worried, stressed, anxious and fearful?

At the Center for Transformational Coaching we want to offer people the opportunity to explore that question and answer it for themselves. There is a need for people who understand how to navigate these times, and who can show others the way. We’re not taught this stuff in school, but it is still possible to learn it in service of what is happening today.

Navigating Uncertain Times Is Something We Can Learn

Navigating our uncertain times is not something people can be expected to just know how to do. They fall into drama, anxiety and fear in the face of the unknown and the sheer scale of the challenges we face.

From where I stand today, I can see that there is a desire to learn how to do this, and there is also a desire to be in spaces where I am safe to attend to all the stress that my experiences in the past year have created. Because in safe spaces I can attend to it all, the light and the shadow, and that begins a healing process.

A healing journey is the ability to return to myself and to connect with that part of me that is resourceful, that is complete, that is whole. And from that connection, I can allow more of my inner wisdom to help me navigate these uncertain times.

When I talk about healing then, it’s not this idea that something’s broken in me or that I need to fix myself. It’s the idea that there’s a part of us that is whole and complete, resourceful and brilliant, creative and strong, and powerful beyond measure. And when we connect to that, that’s when the magic can really happen.

Once we’ve learned this for ourselves, we can help others to find that space in themselves. It begins with your own commitment to your own healing journey, and to learning how to navigate these uncertain times from the depth of your being rather than from trying to do more to ‘solve the problem.’ 

Navigating these times is going to be far more about who you are being, then what you do from that state of being-ness. And the ability to create and hold safe spaces for others to attend to their pain is the key skill that is needed.