Abundant Good Coaching & Training

  • Home
  • Is This You?
  • How We Work
  • About
  • Programs
    • Spiritual Life Coaching
    • The Abundant Good Journey
    • The Creative Impulse Book
    • Re-Write Your Money Story Class
    • VisionBoard
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Is This You?
  • How We Work
  • About
  • Programs
    • Spiritual Life Coaching
    • The Abundant Good Journey
    • The Creative Impulse Book
    • Re-Write Your Money Story Class
    • VisionBoard
  • Blog
  • Contact

abundant good blog

Are you stumbling around in the dark?

10/3/2018

Comments

 
Picture

​Have you ever found yourself waking up in the middle of the night disoriented and needing to go to the bathroom (usually in a hotel room where you’re vacationing), and because it’s so dark, you’re stumbling around and disturbed because you can’t see?

It can feel very frustrating.

Stumbling around in the dark is a great metaphor for how we sometimes can feel in life.


  • You may be knee-deep in the anguish of a relationship and you don’t see a way out.
  • You may be way over your head in financial troubles and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.
  • You could be in a work environment that feels toxic and unsupportive, and you wonder how you could survive another year of this, much less five or ten years in the same job.

What do you do if you find yourself stumbling around in the dark?

The first step is to stop and get your bearings.


Trying to rush to the bathroom after immediately waking from a deep sleep can be disorienting. Instead, take a second to stop and see if you can locate where you are.

Ask yourself, Where am I?

Your eyes might need to adjust to the darkness. After a few seconds, you can start to make out the shapes of objects and get a sense of where you are.

The same is true in a life situation where you feel lost. Take a moment to breathe and get a sense of where you are and what’s happening in your life. See if you can look at the situation without blinders and look at what’s real.

Too often, people want to immediately rush to a solution. 

However, if you’re stumbling in the dark, you might run into a table or stub your toe. You might cause more problems because you want to take action, any action.

But if allow yourself to be present to the moment, you begin to ground yourself and bring a greater awareness to your surroundings and where you are.

After you get your bearings, the next step is to focus on where you want to go.

If you’re in a dark hotel room, you might have to recall where the bathroom is.

Okay, you say to yourself. My bed is right here, and I remember the bathroom is around the corner from the foot of my bed, across from the closet and right near the front door.

This same step can apply to a life situation. Once you know where you are, you have to get clear about where you want to go.

For example, if you’re in a job where you find yourself dreading going to work and you get sick often because you can’t stand it, you might determine that where you really want to go (in your heart of hearts) is to find another place to work.

This step might be one of the hardest for people to make. 

You may have an inkling of where you want to go, but then you immediately start to think of all the ways it could go wrong or why it shouldn’t happen.

With this particular example of knowing you want to find another place to work, you might think, "I can't do that. I've been in this job for 15 years. What else could I do? There's no way I can start all over again."

This step is difficult because you might be conflating where you want to go with how you'll make it happen. These are actually two separate steps.

That’s why I like this metaphor of stumbling in the dark to go to the bathroom. You know where you are (on or near the bed) and you know where you need to go (the bathroom). 

It’s simple. You usually don’t ask yourself what could go wrong in going to the bathroom, or why you shouldn’t go to the bathroom. You just know that you need to get there, and that's where you need to go.

So what’s the next step?

After you know where you are and where you need to go, you figure out how you want to get there.

If you’re in the hotel room and it’s really dark, you might need to shuffle your feet slowly forward while waving your arms around to make sure you don’t hit anything.

Or, if there happens to be some light coming from an alarm clock or some brightness coming from underneath the door from the hallway, your eyes might have adjusted to seeing a clearer path and you move forward with more assuredness and ease.

Whether you shuffle or take big strides, you start moving forward.

With your life situations, you’ll have to figure out what initial steps you want to take.

One way to figure that out is to write out and brainstorm some possible ways to get from here to there. See if you can come up with at least 5 different possibilities.

Another way is to talk with a close confidante, like a friend or family member who can be a sounding board for you.

Or an additional path is for you to seek out some professional assistance from someone like a coach, counselor or mentor who has the expertise to help you figure out what steps to take.

And, as with stumbling in the dark, you might need to adjust your steps along the way. 

You might have started off feeling self-assured, thinking, “I know where I’m going. Let me get there quickly,” and you walk boldly ahead. 

But then you accidentally bump into your luggage that you left in the way. So you might switch to shuffling your feet for the remainder of the path.

As in life, you take a step and then you re-adjust along the way if you need to.

The spiritual truth in today’s lesson is this:

There are moments in your life where you may feel yourself stumbling in the dark. No matter how lost you may feel in the moment, there is always a way forward. 

Getting centered and clear on where you're at now and where you want to go help to make the journey a little easier. And sometimes, you have to move your feet when you can't see the whole picture. 

When all is said and done, take heart. 

After you start moving and taking action, eventually, you will find the light.

Abundant Blessings and Namaste.


I'd love to hear your thoughts about today’s post. Please leave a comment below.

Also, if you’re feeling the need for guidance or support, I offer a complimentary life coaching consultation where we can chat. You can learn more about these life coaching consultations by clicking here.

Finally, if you're interested in receiving these weekly inspiring articles, feel free to sign up by clicking here.
Comments

    About Joselito

    Joselito is a spiritual life coach helping people create a purposeful, spiritual path to career and financial freedom.


    Sign me up to receive the free newsletter


    Popular Blog Articles


    Beware (Be Aware of) these 5 Unhelpful Money Stories

    How my body told me to quit my job

    How I was offered an all-expenses paid cruise after making my Vision Board

    Today I choose to live my GREATNESS

    You are not your stories. You are the story-teller.

    Your job is not your Source.
    ​

    Archives

    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    RSS Feed

© 2022 - Abundant Good. All Rights Reserved. Privacy and Security Policy.