RECLAIM YOUR LIFE
When people share what is happening deep in their souls, they often say things like “I feel like something is missing” or “I feel there must be more to life” or “I feel like I have so much more to offer”
People younger that you would think or people older than you would expect – share these very same sentiments. We describe them as feelings but they are essentially just not.
Well! They may be feelings, but they are so much more than that.
We describe them as feelings because we lack two things
- The courage to claim them as sacred or spiritual truths
- And the spiritual language to adequately describe them
Worse than lacking the courage to claim them as sacred truths about ourselves, we often treat them as human malfunctions. We think of them as negative experiences. We view them as problems to be solved. We think there is something wrong with us and we need them to be fixed. To overcome them so we can get these voices out of our heads.
Nothing could be further from the truth. When you experience this type of yearning and restlessness, you don’t need to be fixed and you are not malfunctioning.
When you sense that something is missing, that there must be more to life or that you have so much more to offer – something is very, very right!
The message you are receiving is from the very deepest part of you. The most authentic part of you is trying to get your attention. You are being beckoned to the truest part of you that is simply incapable of betraying itself and outright refuses to settle for anything less than the very best version of you.
Your soul, your spiritual element is trying to get your attention. And ignoring your soul or spiritual – never ends well.
Listen! Follow! Go where it leads you! Don’t brush the messages aside. Don’t try to avoid them or pretend they don’t exist. After all if you cannot be patient with your very self, how will you master the character to be patient with life as it unfolds for you or with anyone else?
Another mistake we make is to get frustrated thinking we have already dealt with these matters.
These are not once in a lifetime phenomenon. They tend to emerge anew whenever necessary. In different seasons of life, especially during transitions. And we are constantly experiencing the transitions of life, though we don’t always acknowledge them.
We transition to life in the womb to life outside the womb and so it begins That first transition is traumatic and many of life’s transitions afterwards are traumatic.
An unacknowledged trauma is the hardest trauma to make peace with. I believe much of the anger, impatience, judgement, vitriol and cruelty expressed by so many in so many places and situations is the result of not acknowledging these most inner ‘more than feelings’ that prick our very inner most selves.
We are each born to be Great! To be the Exception! To be the best version of ourselves. And our sub-conscious – to whom we cannot lie or deceive – is urging us to sit awhile and listen!
We transition from high school to university to workplace. From one job to another, from one romantic relationship to another, from being a child to being a parent, from being healthy to dealing wit illness, From a bustling lifestyle and dealing with children to an empty nest. From being parents to being grandparents, to name just a sample of life’s transitions.
Life is transition. Life is full of transitions. Life is Messy.
So, if you have the sense that something is missing you are absolutely 100% correct. Don’t doubt that. Explore it. Resist the temptation to be in a hurray to resolve it and accept life’s invitation to journey to wherever it leads you.
At some stage toward the end or the beginning of each year it pays to spend a little time on reflecting on the year that was and the year that is to come.
As part of an exercise or ritual choose a word as a theme for the coming year.
A word I have considered is RECLAIM
Life is a series of gains and losses. These gains and loses take many forms.
Friends come and go; opportunities come and go and we gift little pieces of ourselves to the special people in our lives while other people steal little pieces of ourselves.
Sometimes logical – sometimes paradoxical. We gain things we wish we could lose or we lose things we spend the rest of our lives mourning or trying to recover.
RECLAIM is defined as to retrieve or to recover or to obtain the return of something previously lost, stolen or given.
It’s a good definition but we could add one small, important amendment to it
To reclaim something is to retrieve, recover or obtain the right relationship with something previously lost, given or stolen.
What do you need to RECLAIM? It is time to reclaim whatever has been lost, stolen or given in error (because we deceived ourselves or were manipulated by others).
It is time to reclaim your life. It’s time to reclaim your sense of self.
There are so many ways we CAN reclaim.
You can begin by brainstorming a list with close friends. You will come up many, many aspects of life and self that need to be reclaimed.
Here is a list provided by Matthew Kelly – to help you brainstorm your own list: Dreams, Energy, Creativity, Peace of Mind, Spirituality, Hope for the Future, Time, Personal Finances, Friendships, Fortitude, Stillness, Family, Love of Reading, Psychological Safety, Soul, Heart, Environments, Financial Freedom, Marriage, Kindness, Health, Body, Love of Learning, Mental Health, Meaning of Life, Childlike Wonder, Independence, Stuff, Intimacy, Goodness, Needs, Senses, Inspiration, Attitude, Peace, Confidence, Responsibilities, Relationship with Money, Family, Integrity, Ability to Say No, Space, Curiosity, Freedom, Silence, Wonder, To Do List, Relationship with Things, Privacy, Gratitude, Purpose, Ideas, Past, Present, and Future, Solitude, Fragility, Priorities, Relationship with Money and Things, Boundaries, Hope, Wellbeing, Content Diet, Trust, Dependence, Vulnerability, Career, Respect, Patience, Comfort, Present Moment Awareness, Vocation, Openness, Humility, Vision, Appreciation, Relationship to Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, Voice, Habits, Courage, Decisions, Judgement Choices, Faith, Sense of Adventure, Love, Decisiveness, Social Life, Joy, Flexibility, and Contentment.
Now consider the other option. RECLAIM…. or what?
What is the other option? If you don’t reclaim what you need to reclaim – what will happen? What won’t happen? What damage will be done to the best and purest parts of you?
If we RECLAIM what is rightfully ours and help others do the same, I believe we will enter a new period of human flourishing. This is my hope, my dream, my prayer for you. We have to turn the moral compass and mindset of this country around and experience Respect, Humility, True Compassion and accept personal full Responsibility and Accountability for our CHOICES of language, actions and the company we keep.
Proliferating our anger and our EGO onto another person or the public and expecting to FIX IT or FIX YOU – is never going to work. You will become the best version of yourself.
May you flourish as the person you were created to be – unique and wonderful — like never before.
So, if you have the sense that something is missing or that there must be more to life or that you have so much more to give……I am excited for you
Don’t ignore it. Don’t avoid it or push it away. Embrace it as a special gift. If you do – something terrific and uplifting will happen.
