Lately, I've been sitting with a lot of mixed emotions.
Not the kind that can be neatly organized into a pros-and-cons list or solved with a vision board. The kind that arrive unexpectedly at when you're folding laundry, driving down a familiar road, or watching your children grow right before your eyes. My oldest just finished his second-last year of high school. How is that even possible? One more year and our family will enter a completely different season. One more year before graduation, adulthood, and all the beautiful changes that come with it.
At the same time, my youngest is heading into Grade 8. Homeschooling has been one of the greatest learning experiences of my life, not just for him, but for me as well. It's challenged me, stretched me, and taught me lessons I never expected to learn, and somewhere in the middle of all of this, there is me. A woman trying to figure out what her next chapter looks like. I wear many hats: a wife, mother, coach, dreamer, and a living, breathing soul who doesn't always know her next step. What I've come to realized in my 40+ years of life is that growth isn't always exciting. Sometimes growth feels messy. Sometimes growth feels like standing with one foot in the life you've built and one foot reaching toward something you just can't quite see yet. Sometimes growth looks a lot like uncertainty. For years, I've taught people about mindset, self-esteem, and personal growth. But there are moments when the greatest lesson isn't in teaching others, t's in practicing what you've learned.
Right now, I'm learning how to sit with my feelings instead of rushing to solve them. I'm learning that not every emotion requires an immediate action plan, and that sometimes sadness isn't a sign that something is wrong, and that fear isn't a sign that you're making a wrong choice. Sometimes, the confusion that you feel is simply an invitation to slow down and listen.
I've spent much of my life believing I needed clarity before moving forward. Now I'm beginning to see that clarity often comes after we allow ourselves a safe space to feel how we are feeling. To really grasp why these emotions are ours in the moment and what we can learn from them.
What if we stopped demanding answers from ourselves? Better yet, what if we gave ourselves permission to simply just notice?
Notice the excitement, the grief, the hope, the uncertainty, the dreams that keep whispering to us. The truth is, life transitions rarely arrive one emotion at a time. They often come bundled together. You can be grateful and scared, excited and heartbroken, confident and uncertain, ready and not so ready, all at the same time. None of those feelings have to cancel each other out. As I think about the future, my future, I know one thing for certain: I want to build a life that feels gentle. A life that serves my family, my community, and my own heart, too! For many years, I believed serving myself was selfish. Today, I see it differently. When we create space for our own joy, healing, and growth, we show up better for everyone around us. It's that whole "filling your cup before you fill the cup of others' thing I tend to preach about. When we do this, we become more present, more patient, more fulfilled, and more unapologetically ourselves.
So if you're standing in your own "space between chapters" right now, wondering what's next, I want you to know this: You don't have to have it all figured out, because I know that I certainly don't. You don't need a five-year plan by Friday, because Fridays come once a week and though the future is not guaranteed, either is a five-year plan. You don't need to rush your healing, your decisions, or your journey. Give yourself permission to feel what you're feeling. Honor what each emotion is trying to teach you. Trust that your heart is gathering information, even when your mind hasn't found the answers yet.
The next chapter will come in its own beautiful time. Until then, give yourself the gift of grace. Trust the unfolding. Honour the uncertainty. Not because you're lost, but because every challenge, every lesson, and every emotion is shaping the person your future is already calling you to be. <3
Cheers,
Coach Jo <3
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