The Growth Process (AKA You're Doing a Great Job)

Awhile ago, really mostly during the summer, I was posting a lot about the action steps I was taking. I made a lot of posts about managing fear in our lives, and how to work with the fear in order to get through it. After awhile it just seemed like I'd lost all gusto though, and I was getting down because everything felt like effort without the results I wanted. I wrote about this a little, and acknowledging the down times in your life, which inevitably led me to turn inwards, and to seek inside myself to figure out what was going on. My posts lately have been about tuning into your inner guidance, getting quiet, feeling good and reconnecting to self-love. 

This cycle of outwards, inwards, outwards, inwards is something I often lose perspective on, and that's usually when I feel most frustrated, like everything is conspiring against me. But when I can remember to step back and see the ebb and flow of my life I feel a sense of reassurance in myself and my natural ability to get through any and all challenges, in the right time, and with incredible soul growing moments along the way. Each process always naturally flows into the next, and they build on each other, leading to greater moments of clarity and faith in myself. At this time, I feel that I've found the inner answers, or maybe even just the feelings, I was looking for, and I'm ready up for more outwards action.

Our outward actions and inner times of reflection compliment and work with each other so well, but only so long as we allow ourselves to see them through without feeling one is more important than the other. You may take several steps next week, or for the next few months, and feel like all you do is hit walls. This will lead you to stop and ask yourself - why is this happening? In which case you turn inwards, you find answers, limiting beliefs you didn't know you had, and you let them go and find more positive thought patterns. And then you go back out, make more steps, you go further. And then eventually you seem to hit more walls. And again, you turn inwards, you congratulate yourself on being in a new place, and you ask yourself how you can now go further, how you can get through these new obstacles. Something will always make you fedup of doing the same thing and getting the same results - thus leading to the inward focus. But if you only stayed inward - perhaps even trying to hide from certain experiences, you'd never gain the clarity, strength, and growth that you desire.

Today take a moment to reflect on the ebb and flow of your life. Try to see it as a growth process, rather than a struggle. Look back and see that even though you face a lot of challenges you grow each time. You are climbing a mountain and not just walking in a circle. That's really what's going on - each time you hit obstacles you are hitting the limits of where you are now, what's comfortable, what you know. And each time you resolve this you expand, gain new strength, you climb your inner mountain a little higher, opening your field of possibility and perspective. 

You can't do this wrong and you always, always have enough time. If it seems like you haven't done the things you wanted, you haven't grown as much as you wanted, and time is slipping away, it might be because you're comparing your life to other peoples'. You are doing the best you can with what you know and who you are. You are having the journey that is perfect for you. And always remember, your greatest accomplishments may never receive an award or be written about anywhere. To feel we accomplish huge and well known things is great, but it's all the little things along the way that get you there that make up life. The happiest, most important moments of your life may be inner shifts only you know about, a moment you laughed with a friend, or just a small change you make in your daily routine that makes your whole life flow better. 

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