Today’s post is an excerpt from my NEW eBook Get Unstuck: A Workbook to Create Clarity, Ignite Your Spark & Keep You Moving Forward. If you haven’t downloaded your FREE copy yet (and I’d so love for you to!), please do cruise on over here.
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You will find that in order to ‘get unstuck’, life will occasionally throw us a curve ball. A really, really hard one. One that smacks us in the face and hurts like hell.
One that crushes us, shatters us, breaks us apart. Brings us to our knees and obliterates our current understanding of the world. Forces us to question everything. Leaves us broken and bruised, unsure and confused.
These are the difficult times in our life and it is often these challenging chapters of our existence that we are forced to move forward as we discover what is truly important to us and what we really want from life.
It is how we choose to use these difficult times to cultivate growth and understanding, kindness and gratitude, that guides us forward.
My story?
During severe illness, I found the confidence to make empowered decisions for my health and happiness and discovered the healing power of food and holistic medicine.
Undoubtedly, this painful time was the seed that grew into my desire to pursue a career as a health coach.
Grieving the loss of my grandparents within just weeks of each other, showed me the softness and power in vulnerability.
Working through the minutes, days, weeks, months (and still – these words ache to write), after my younger brother’s motorcycle accident that left him with a severe brain injury, transformed my life brutally and beautifully.
I’ve garnered compassion, fostered appreciation and made the decision to move forward – to choose life – every single day. It is hard. It is tough. But this is life.
In one of my favourite blog posts from Danielle La Porte, she writes:
‘It has never failed that when I have been through the most heart-breaking passages of my life — betrayal, financial hardship, divorce, dreams dashed — the pain brought me to the floor of my being, and what was there to be found?:
The simple joy of being alive. So cosmically basic it’s mind-blowing: the joy to be here, connected, animated, breathing, blessed, resilient, to be broken, to be open, to have what was, what’s left, what’s coming. The joy just to be part of reality.’
Let suffering be your teacher and pain be your muse.
Allow yourself to dance in the rhythm of life, to embrace what is – whatever that may be – and make your way through the darkness with trust and faith, back into the light. Breathe and take your time – we’ll be here, waiting for you when you arrive.
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I would be incredibly grateful if you’d share these words of mine, using the buttons below.
We all navigate our way through the darkness at some point, made all the more illuminating by the supportive words of others. I’d love for this post, and my free eBook, to be the light for others.
Tell me in the comments, how have you emerged through difficult times, a stronger and more compassionate person?
This is such a beautiful post, Claire, and I can’t wait to check out your eBook! I’ve been through a few months of pretty brutal self discovery through kinesiology and unlocking some pretty deep seeded energy blockages from my childhood. Whoa! Who knew what could come from shifting around a little energy. After doing it for almost a year now, I’m starting to really peel back the layers of myself and finally get some clarity, it’s powerful stuff.
Oh, I adore kinesiology, it certainly has the power to create some massive shifts, doesn’t it? It’s funny, because the first time I did it when I was 17, I thought it was such a load of nonsense. Ha! Funny what happens when we open our hearts a little more. Thrilled you enjoyed this post Katherine and I’d love to know what you think of my eBook x
I spoke at my grandfathers funeral on behalf of the grandchildren it felt I was so strong for my pa and I was. Something that I thought I could never do as I thought it would be so hard it was but I did it.
I had lots of people come to me and say how amazing my words were, they were from the heart and most of all my closest family saying how proud of me they are for doing it. And how proud pa would be.
I feel my life is starting to take a change for the better, more self love, more acceptance, ability to take the time to grieve, I’m still in the healing process but the more I breathe and take my time the better I’ll be on the otherside.
Thank you Claire xx
Oh sweetheart, your words have given me shivers. What a strong, vulnerable, brave thing to do. Want to know a little secret? We’re all still in the healing process – we always will be. This is what it means to be human, to continue to shed layers, let things go, ease into change and flow fluidly with the river of life. This is where we find real freedom. Keep taking your time, beautiful girl, enjoy every precious moment xx
I received a rather large wake-up call in the form of thyroid cancer, in the first instance I chose “business as usual” in order to keep going. But life had other plans for me. Within months my misalignment with my job and my relationship with myself, my husband and my kids became so glaringly obvious I chose “complete and utter change”. I left work and put everything into more compassion firstly for myself and then for those around me. It is still a daily practice/challenge, and as I find my body sending me more signals, I am embracing compassion and overhauling my nutrition and exercise (or lack thereof) finally. Thank you for your inspirational page and post.
Lisa – I hear you on this one!!! I also developed thyroid cancer at 26 years of age (3 years ago) – a massive wake up call however it was not the call I would hear…(Also went about life as normal and back to work straight away) and i had to further have more “wake up calls” unfortunately!! – a relapse of anorexia nervosa which i had developed in my teen years..and then a divorce most recently…thankfully – despite the heart wrenching pain of all of this I am so grateful now because of the lessons I have learnt…for now I have truly come home to me..embraced what is and every day, EVERY DAY, NOW, I choose life. I will never ever leave myself again; and for this; I am so grateful. I am so glad to hear that you are hearing the messages your body is sending you too; keep up the compassion – for yourself most of all. You deserve it. We all do! Where in the world did we ever learn that we didn’t!!
Thank you Claire, for a beautiful post. Truly heart warming and touching. Lots of love to you xo.
Thanks for your kind words Jenny. I love your attitude towards all the lessons you’ve been shown. Sounds like your life will be amazing because you choose it to be so. X
Oh ladies, THIS is what it is all about. Connecting. Compassion. Lifting each other up and wiping away our tears on the sleeves of our comrades! You both rock. Amazing stories, amazing choices and amazing human beings. Keep shining your light!! x
This: “I’ve garnered compassion, fostered appreciation and made the decision to move forward – to choose life – every single day. It is hard. It is tough. But this is life.”
Words of truth. Love. Thank you.
Thank you beautiful girl x
Amazing Claire. We all have a dark moments….I always thought it was just me living in the dark whole. Thankfully my darkness has lifted and I am so proud I dug out of the dark whole to find people like you. I am gaining strength and using my pain in a positive way. Thank you. Xx
It can so often feel as if we are the only ones experiencing whatever it is we are working through… But this is so, so SO not the case. Your passion and drive to help others through the own dark periods, combined with your experience, is going make you one hell of a coach Karla. Thanks for sharing my dear x
Love this post gorgeous girl, you’ve found the perfect words to sum up so much of the experience of pain, loss and confusion. For me, personally, a brush with my mental health becoming unstuck really changed a hell of a lot of stuff. Being diagnosed with OCD and anxiety was one of the hardest yet best things that could have happened. Looking back (with the value of hindsight of course), I can see how I managed to suppress a bunch of warning signs that something wasn’t quite right, especially as I wasn’t anxious ‘all the time’. The times when I felt fine disguised the deeper problem at hand and it took a rapid diminishing of feeling good for me to realise that I needed to get sorted. It’s certainly an ongoing process and one which I keep a very close eye on today BUT I am without doubt, a changed for the better person due to my experience.
Thank you so much for sharing Naomi, how true is it that we are sent a bunch of warning signs that things aren’t quite right… More often than not, we just simply don’t know how to listen to what our bodies are telling us. Incredible that you can now, tune in to these feelings and signals and make some adjustments. Beautiful. x
hi!
i saw you on the skype interview opwth nat kringoudis, got interested in your story and now exploring you blog ??????
also, i want to subscribe but the system doesn’t send me the confirmation mail((( what should i do?
Hi Stacy! I’ve just tried adding you – let me know if you don’t receive a confirmation email and I will add you directly into the system. 🙂 x