Reading a recent editorial by Claudia Cusano (of NUVO magazine), she said something that really struck me: “At a time when habits and assumptions have been upended, living must mean something much deeper than ticking boxes”.
For most people, life has been a long list of boxes needing to be ticked. Getting an education, finding a good job, raising a family etc. Not a lot of time was devoted to what you were passionate about or what fed your true nature. In her 2013 book, “Finding your way in a wild new world” Martha Beck discusses the importance of finding and healing your true nature as this is what provides the motive for creating the life you want.
This time of great change and renewal provides the perfect opportunity for us to question everything in our personal lives and create something new. Take the leap on something you have always wanted to do, bring your brilliant ideas out into the open, design your life the way you want it to be. If a global pandemic cannot shake us out of complacency, what will?
Life can continue to be lived from a “same old” point of view but it does not need to be. We must be careful that the desire to “get back to normal” does not invite back the same old tired ideas and habits. As Beck puts it, “ Look around you, right this instant. What’s happening? Where is the rustle in the grass….You may sense it as a longing, a magnetic pull, a heart-stopping possibility, a warm glow. Whatever it is, Imagine it. Form it. Commit to it with a wayfinder’s passion and persistence”.
Looking ahead to a post pandemic world, we can ask ourselves who we want to be. What parts of ourselves do we want to leave behind? What is the life we dream of?
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