WHEN LIFE ISN’T MOVING

There are openings I am beginning to see and want to walk through. Somehow, I cannot and I feel stuck. What can I do?

FEELING STUCK

In the past year, life has not moved as we endured lockdowns and other restrictions. This lack of movement was created by events outside of us and we slowed down. Many everyday activities were curtailed and we were left alone with ourselves, more than ever before. Now, life is slowly starting to move again and openings are appearing.

In some cases, life isn’t moving due to forces within us. It could be that we are resisting something. Fear could be present. Maybe we are just tired or burned out. We could be at rest. We may have questions that need to be answered before we move again or that we are building courage or resilience for our next move.

Finding the cause helps us get back into motion. We can pursue finding the cause in many different ways. We can create silent spaces and look carefully at what is happening in our lives and what may be holding us back. We can seek support of others — healers, coaches, trusted friends — to share and ask for their insights and support.

MAKING ROOM

We have to make room in order for new things to come in. Our lives are often filled with activities, people, to-dos, obligations, responsibilities and mental and emotional clutter. These things take up space. Certain elements of our lives impede what is waiting to come in. We cannot walk through the openings that awaits us.

Some modern cultures discourage us from allowing change in our lives. They equate life staying as it is with safety and security. Letting go of elements of our lives is resisted. We seek the safety of staying where we are and remaining in sync with societal norms. Change takes us out of that societal comfort zone and we can encounter fear and uncertainty.

It is not an easy task to make room in our lives for new openings. However, it is essential to our movement. Stasis gets us nowhere and, at certain points, we can begin to go backwards as the world moves on without us. Some compare this inertia with falling asleep to what is happening in our world. We do not want that if openings are to be a part of our lives.

HOW TO CLOSE

We need to develop ways to make room in our lives for new openings. This process of release frees us to move forward in a big way. Some use ceremony, meditation, journaling, or creating physical representations of what we are releasing and doing away with them. We can also come up with our own strategy for letting something go.

Embracing and releasing is an essential flow in the process of growth. Things change in our lives. Like the ocean tides going in and out and in and out again. To be ready for this, our lives must flow as well — releasing and embracing, letting go of energy drains and things that no longer serve us and doing the hard work of knowing what should not remain in our lives.

A CLEAR PATH AHEAD

Once we have learned how to release and to close old aspects of our lives, there is room for new things to enter. This room is essential to recognizing the openings that await us and will soon appear. The clutter that once existed and impeded openings from appearing are gone. We have more freedom and open space in our lives.

Initially, we may not see openings. However, we are ready for when they come. As we meet new people and have new experiences, we see them with fresh eyes. We see things that we could not see before. We have declared ourselves ready for new openings through release and closure.

It is a clear path that we want in order to grow and take advantage of openings. Who wants to stumble on a rocky road to get where we are going? We want flow and ease and these are possible if we learn how to make room for openings.

It is so nice to be moving again! I am feeling so much lighter after learning a process of release and I feel free.

photo: Rory McKeever, unsplash.com