Reflection Time

As we wrap up August and enter the transition to a new season, reflect on what summer gave you and what you gave it. What seeds did you plant? What places did you see? Who did you spend time with? What actions did you take that added or subtracted from your own journey of fruition? Did you make a difference in others lives? Are you growing? What activities do you find flow and ease in? Are you learning and expanding or contracting? What are you grateful for daily?

Each day, each season and cycle, we can begin new again, take inventory, find gaps, fill them, celebrate progress and moving forward imperfectly into our becoming and unfolding.

Ask questions and listen for the answers.

What are your goals and aspirations for the fall?
What’s ready to harvest?
What needs nurturing and time?
What seeds need to be planted?

Get specific, write them down, take them from the abstract to concrete. Break down your desired destination into steps and remember to enjoy the journey along the way too. Life is about being and doing, using all of your talents and gifts and remaining present in each day.

Reflection time prepares us for transition and inspires action for what is next in the journey.

The Path to New Beginnings

“If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.” – Gail Sheehy

Bridges’ Transition Model defines three stages that individuals experience during change:

  1. Ending What Currently Is

  2. The Neutral Zone

  3. The New Beginning

Endings

Transition starts with an ending. The first phase begins when we identify what we are losing and how to manage these losses.

Neutral Zone

The next step of transition comes after letting go, the in-between time when the old is gone and the new hasn’t begun yet. This is the space and place where we need to realign, create new patterns and sense of identity. It is core to the transition process. We spend a lot of time in the neutral zone. While it feels like we’re stuck, it is fertile ground that prepares us to move fully into new beginnings. Be patient and keep moving through to get to the third stage.

New Beginnings

Beginnings require a shift in perspective, understanding and attitudes. Releasing the old, we open to the new with a renewed energy that propels us into a new direction with a fresh identity.

“You can’t follow the thread of your life very far before you find “the past” changing. Things that you haven’t remembered in years reappear, and things that you’ve always thought were so turn out to be not so at all. If the past isn’t the way you thought it was, then the present isn’t, either. Letting go of that present may make it easier to conceive of a new future.”― William Bridges, Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes

Keep trying new things each day, growing and on the road to new beginnings.