Finding Sanctuary in the Midst of Transformation

I don’t know who out there needs to hear this right now, but it’s going to be okay. 

I have been telling myself this all week. 

This week of weeks when I have needed a lavender bath every single night just to settle down enough to go to bed. This week when even Advil PM can’t turn off my mind. This week of weeks when I have alternately felt exhausted, elated, overwrought and relived. It’s been a full-time job just to navigate my own emotions and experience. 

I realized today that, on the heels of everything else that’s been part of living these past few months, I’ve also been experiencing a “hurricane hangover.” It’s been five months of insurance claims and introspection and I’m feeling it. 

I’ve had to forcibly remind myself that these experiences are not just trials. They are an invitation to transformation. 

It’s really easy to type that. It isn’t, however, an easy invitation to accept sometimes. Transformation is a rebirth of sorts. And in order for something to be reborn, something must pass. Something must die. Something must be let go—something that doesn’t serve us.

So, what doesn’t serve me that I’m still embracing? What do I need to just release so that I can find equilibrium? 

I started a list. I’m SO ready to let go of:

Sleeplessness

Resentment 

Worry

Resisting

Expectations

Seriously, this list could go on and on. I suppose if I were making a COMPLETE list, I could include the extra pounds that have found their way to my scale, the acne that has inflicted my chin, or the dad jokes my husband delights in telling.

Dad jokes aside, where does this leave me? What is my opportunity here? Stripping back to the essentials as I shed what no longer serves, what emerges as a surprise and a gift? 

To see transformation as possibility, as opportunity for growth and change. To see myself in step with the Universe, flowing with the energies around me, resisting nothing. To realize that it’s all going to be okay, even if the Universe has a slightly different version of “okay” than the one I’ve had in mind.

Do you see how sanctuary helps? It helps me go from focusing on the problem to being ready to hear what the Universe is trying to tell me, and being ready to surrender, to accept, to be pliable, and to be nimble. Creating a sanctuary for ourselves creates a gateway where we can go from madness to the moment, where we can move from chaos to calm.

I have needed the support of my sanctuary this week more than ever. I have leaned on it, depended on it and it has delivered. That bath? Decidedly yes. Candles and incense and writing and contemplation? Oh most certainly yes. 

The deep breath on arrival home. The relaxing of my shoulders as I sink down into that warm fragrant water. The support of those amazing down pillows in my sanctuary of a bed. I have needed each and every one. 

Every physical comfort I’ve created for myself, every moment I spend listening to that inner voice and in caring for my inner being—these are the things that sustain and strengthen me. As mundane as they might seem, these are the beginning steps of transformation. These are what sanctuary is all about. 

What is the Universe asking you to to release? What is the transformation you are undergoing right now? I know these aren’t always easy question to answer, but I would love to hear if you’re willing to share.

With love and gratitude,

Lisa