Change hurts. The temptation to avoid it is understandable but deadly. Nothing good grows in stagnant energy.
Once we finally choose or are forced by circumstances to change, it can get messy if we don't plan in advance.
You know this. I know you've experienced resisting change and eventually you got smacked in the head with the cosmic 2x4. That was fun, wasn't it?
Planning for pain makes it less painful.
Sometimes the seemingly spontaneous combustion of change is so startling and unexpected (and unplanned) we freeze up, stunned into shut down.
We stare at embers and ash, smoke-blind and afraid to take the next steps into the rebirth phase.
This is dangerous.
This is the moment the call to return to our Familiar Bad Feeling Place is the loudest.
Let's be radically honest with ourselves, though. The explosion is not spontaneous. It's been building for years. You just missed, or ignored, the cues hovering at the edges of your awareness, peeking around corners in your dreams, snorkeling through your subconscious; that Change was coming for you, and now it's here.
Remember, the Phoenix doesn't combust, plop down on her ass, and start digging bone fragments from the ashes.
She flies. She flies fast. She knows the Familiar Bad Feeling Place will be grasping at her tail feathers to pull her back.
The change cycle is as predictable as rain falling on picnic day, which is why we can prepare in advance.
For the Phoenix, pressure to grow builds. It backs up in her head, heart, and hips. The transformation wheel cranks up the heat to the point of no return, and something, usually an external event, triggers a spark that turns to flame.
She explodes into alchemical fire and immediately flies into action faster than Fear can clip her smoking wings.
She knows any hesitation creates an opening for Fear to douse the flames fueling her flight. She knows she must escape the gravitational pull of her former existence, no matter how much it hurts.
She knows this process is painful. It always hurts and is often excruciating. But the desire to grow will not be denied, and the dirty pain of staying stuck hurts even more.
There is pain either way, but the pain of conscious change is temporary and crisp. Fire is cleansing and ultimately refreshing.
So fly. Fly fast.
Wipe the smoke from your eyes. Don't allow anything, especially not your Familiar Bad Feeling Place, to get in the way of creation, calling you to burn the deadwood and start anew!
You're the boss of you.
Get going!
XO,
LMW
P.S. Train Your Body to Write is open for enrollment.