Listen to the podcast on this topic here

Whether we're feeling overwhelmed by life, something challenging came our way or we're dealing with our own internal battles, I would love to offer you something. Not to take away at acknowledging that difficulty but to place it just as it is, in a new frame.

From judgement to curiosity

Something shifts for us when we tap into the feeling of curiosity.

As children, we're curious about everything. We're learning about the world, trying to create a structure in our mind which will allow us to define other future things that arrive in our lives.

We're creating the lenses in whcih we view reality.

When we grow up however, we have builded big frameworks of meaning on how the world works and what our place is in it. Although the framework brings comfort and a sense of understanding, it also brings rigidity and limitations.

Something is either good or bad, right or wrong, allowed or not allowed. Through these colored lenses, we judge whatever comes our way.

But when we reconnect to that sense of curiosity, we open up our child-like wonder where life is happening in mysterieus ways.

‘When we reconnect to that sense of curiosity, we open up our child-like wonder where life is happening in mysterieus ways.‘

Can you find a memory to look back upon where something felt really hard and difficult, but looking back now it was actually such a transformative, important and even precious time?

It changed you for the better, made you stronger, more resilient and more confident in who you are and what you need and want.

The story of the lobster

When I think about this, I think about this interesting fact I once read somewhere about how lobsters grow.

As the lobster grows, the shell they live in, becomes very confining. This feels very uncomfortable and as the pressure increases, eventually they cast the shell off. They are very vulnerable at this time, so they hide under a rock formation to seek protection. After sometime, they produce a brand new one, that fits the size of their body just right.

The discomfort for the lobster is a very important part of the process. Only due to the pressure, the shell breaks off eventually and they are able to continue life in a shell more suitable.

The discomfort actually propells them forward in their transformation.

‘The discomfort actually propells them forward in their transformation.’

When it comes to us facing any challenges or darkness in our life, could we view this in the same way. Understanding that the discomfort of that phase of life propells us forward in our transformation? That we're not sufferings for the sake of suffering, but that we're experiencing what we're experiencing, because we're here to grow.

& when we stay curious, when we stay open and are receptive towards what this phase of life has to teach us, we might see the empowering meaning behind it.

Viewing things from a new lens

I remember when I was dealing with my binge eating dirsorder, right before i decided to seek help, I wrote about this in my journal.

I wrote that I knew that I was moving through all of this, because of my purpose. Because I am here to support and hold space for others moving through their journeys and to be able to do that in the most profound way, I need to know exactly what they are going through.

No one ever can know the reason why things happen the way that they do.

Sometimes, without carrying an answer other then: ‘‘I am meant to go through this appartently, because fact is: I am going through it'', might be all we have.

We suffer when we resist what is and if we even for a moment, in the midst of hardship, can allow ourselves to be where we are.

Deciding to believe that we're in transformation-mode. We're the lobster in the tight shell right now.

‘We're the lobster in the tight shell right now.‘

And that we're here to always keep learning and growing.

& perhaps, just like me at the time, you have a feeling why this challenge presents itself to you now. I hope it brings you hope and strength and more okay-ness, wherever you're at.

Questions to ask yourself could be: What is there to learn here? How am I evolving right now? & How much can I simply be here, with all that's present for me?

Not to fix or change anything, but to just become still with it and listen.