We generally stick with what we know, even if it’s drowning us.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been coaching someone and asked them if their current habits were serving what they were wanting in their life. Most of the time, when I ask this question, it’s a knowing, “no” answer - they understand that their behaviors aren’t getting them to where they want to be, yet they are still stuck in an old limiting pattern.
We spent half of the day yesterday at the pool with friends and got Zoe to test her swimming skills in the deep end - something she has been terrified of doing. One thing I always tell her when she says she “can’t swim in the deep”, is that swimming under water in the deep end is the exact same thing as swimming under water in the shallow end… there’s just more water under you.
When I meditated today, I was drawn to visualizing myself in the shadows of the great depths of the ocean (I’m sure not a coincidence, lol). Something about watching everyone play around in the depths yesterday stirred knowledge in me wishing to come to the surface. Right away, I was reminded of how comforting it can be within existing patterns, even those that aren’t serving our purpose/values. Sitting quietly in the depths didn’t take much energy or effort on my part.
If instead, I wanted to swim to the surface - to an alternate reality, it would require effort and exertion on my part. It would require me to be uncomfortable, to feel the oxygen being used up more quickly by my body as I kicked to the top. It would test the trust in my own capabilities and challenge my so-called boundaries. It a nutshell, it would be hard.
We tend to shy away from hard. We’ve gotten pretty good at it too, in my opinion. But hard is all around us in 2020. We are being pushed to our limits and beyond from multiple angles. Values and behaviors that were developed once upon a time, that may have served a purpose at their origin, no longer support what we are wanting. The universe is forcing us to change, and most of us are kicking and screaming, almost holding ourselves in the depths simply because we are afraid of what we don’t know. If we continue to kick against this wave, if we continue to exert all of this energy while still within the depths, we will surely drown.
If instead, we choose to put our feet down, kick hard against the surface and swim with everything we have, we will break through and be rewarded with the oxygen and energy our bodies and souls so desperately need. The shadows of the depths are testing us - they are pushing us to grow, and they are a necessary piece of the puzzle. They will make the light at the surface that much brighter.