Preparing for a new baby, taking care of elderly sick parents, retirement, divorce, children leaving home, a career leap, or emerging from the ashes of depression all qualify as a major life transitions. All of it requires us to let go of a previous understanding of ourselves, our lives, and perhaps the world, and form a new one.
Whether that process proves to be positive or negative for us has less to do with the details of the change than with our relationship to it. Change is inevitable. Just when you think you’re getting calm transition occurs. Life is a rollercoaster of emotions. Life is always pulling us forward to grow. Life will not keep you in a non-growing place. Here are five life transitions that we can all identify with and expect to come in time.
1.
Leaving the nest: Every baby eagle comes into
this world surrounded by the comfort and protection of a nurturing nest. The
baby eaglets' parents provide for them, bring food, and keep predators away.
But then something awful happens.
The parents begin to turn that
once cozy, spacious nest into a prickly, tight space that forces them to leap
out and spread their wings. Everyone goes through this same transition of letting
go and venturing into the unknown. The process of soaring only happens
when we take a leap a faith and jump out of the familiar
2.
Self discovery: Finding
out who you are is an important life-changing step. Every person has to be
introduced to their true selves. It’s the divine patterns in your life, and
relationships that help show us who we are. This life transition thrusts us
into a new reality of who we are and causes the trajectory of that person to
emerge. The discovery of who you are is a revelation we each must find for
ourselves.
3. Marriage
and family: To marry or
not to marry, that is the question. Every person makes the decision to either
start a family or live in singleness. Marriage and family is a life transition
that we all face and have to decide what that means for us. Will our faith
dictate our answer? Will we carve out our own path, or go against the grain?
Deciding to join your life to someone else’s, and bring babies into the world
is a major life transition.
4. Finding
purpose and your life work: What on earth am I here for? We all go through a phase in life where we
desire to answer this question. Giving life a sense of purpose, guidance, and
direction brings about greater meaning to our individual lives. Healthy,
holistic living involves walking purposefully in your unique divine calling.
5. The
comfort zone challenge: All good comfort zones must come to an end. Life will never let you get
too comfortable and just when you think you have everything all figured out,
you will be confronted with something that challenges your coveted, familiar
comforts. Don’t fight back, but instead give in. Learn to channel the
anxiety of change into productive energy that propels you into the next
level.
“History
will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social
transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling
silence of the good people. “(Martin Luther King, Jr.)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“5 Life Transitions Everyone Goes Through” by Jana Duckett
·
“Five Ways to Navigate Life
Transitions Successfully” by /
Jim
Hjort
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