||| AS THE PARADIGM SHIFTS by ROSIE KUHN |||
Upon reviewing our lives, and perhaps reliving memories of the past, we often see patterns and strategies we were conditioned to engage in. There were principles and rules, ideals and obligations at play that we may not have been aware of. We consciously chose to take the path we took based on what made sense to us and the world around us.
As we age, and perhaps as we get beyond obligations of family and career, we are given opportunities to review how we lived our lives, how we made choices, and how we lived within the consequences of those choices.
If you are able to imagine yourself as an “Indiana Jones” of sorts, you can see your life as an amazing adventure. You were handed a manual written by your culture, your family, your friends. It seemed right that you follow those mandates. At times you could have chosen a path less traveled, and perhaps you did. Perhaps like Indiana, that manual had absolutely no relevance to the circumstances you found yourself in, so you used it for toilet paper or as a fire starter instead!
Truth is, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done so far with this manual of yours. What matters is that you were able to be with all the twists and turns, all of the consequences of those choices, and acknowledge to yourself, “Wow, that was an amazing adventure that I created for myself. What have I learned so far? What can I take with me as I go forward on the rest of this journey of my life?”
When I read, in the book Oneness, that the how is the entire point of this journey we call our lives, it kind of shattered my reality. Up until recently, I’ve been more enmeshed in the what of this journey: what I’ve done and was it enough? Was what I’ve done right, wrong, good or bad? In the next decade or two, will I be rewarded for what I’ve done, and do I have what it takes to live well and prosper? Or will I regret what I’ve done for the rest of my life?
As I consider the how’s of my life, the story becomes more interesting and engaging. And, as I age, I’m able to review this story so much more from the overview. Actually, now that I think about it, I wrote an autobiographical book, The Unholy Adventure of a Reluctant Adventurer. The intention of writing that book was to uncover how I came to to choose some the most ridiculously challenging choices throughout my life.
As the title of that book suggests, I never saw myself as an adventurer and probably never will. However, I suspect that each of us, through reviewing and reliving the how’s of our life, create an opportunity to reveal how we created an incredible adventure for ourselves—coming to this
planet, figuring out the what’s and how’s. Then bushwhacking our own trails of a life that will never be lived or known in quite the way that you know your life to be. Isn’t that awesome!
In the new Indiana Jones movie, as in all of the previous ones, we onlookers are always wondering how he’s gonna get out of whatever life-threatening predicament he’s currently in.
SNAKES!!!!
Everyone’s Life is an Adventure
I love supporting and empowering my clients to be curious and to discover theirs hows of their adventure. In doing so, they reveal to themselves just how courageous, resilient and creative they are. They build trust in their own capacities to be in the worst of the worst of the worst situations,
and know they are going to come through it, one way or another. One such client, Maria, is going through a challenging chapter in her adventure. We’ve been working together over years, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard her declare that, no matter what, she knows she’s going to land on
her feet! She shared, “I don’t know how yet, but this is all going to unfold in a really good way.
I’ve done it before, and now I know that I’ll know how when the time is right!
I’d love for you to be curious about how your own journey began and unfolded. Perhaps write your memoirs for yourself. Encourage yourself to live in the question, “How did I come to make the choices I made, and how I did I live in the consequences that arose?” It will take you on a marvelous journey. I guarantee it will be a fascinating story for you to reveal to yourself. And you will love the way the story ends!!
Love this, Rosie!