So let’s talk about a crisis of spirit.

Not sure what that is? Well are you one of those people who, after a big event or series of events experiences a type of letdown?

I know I am.

At age twelve I can recall feeling completely zonked after the last day of school, all the excitement and the emotional good- byes and being so keyed up that I wasn’t able to sleep, so I got up at like 3AM to watch TV and a scary movie was on (which made me feel even worse) until my Dad came down and ushered me back to bed.

He said to me;

 

‘You are experiencing a let down, I get those too. You just need to rest, it will pass’.

 

I didn’t realize it at the time but I now think I was experiencing an adolescent version of a crisis of spirit.

 

Fast forward to the present.

 

There has been a lot of excitement these last two weeks and life has been more hectic than usual;  the winter Power Posse wrap up,  my talk to a women’s group, prepping for the Power Posse ‘Make It Happen!’ program that starts in late May, meeting with my friend and fellow coach TJ around our fall Apache Springs equus retreat (aka horse magic)….

 

….and then there was the non work stuff like Oliver’s 10th birthday party,  baseball games and practices, and horse back riding lessons, grocery shopping…you know how it is.

 

So after all that commotion and on the ONE day where I could have caught my breathe and truly rested I instead decided to go for a long run in the heat (we had a bit of a heat wave here in BC last week) and then drive for over an hour to get lost in the maze that is commonly known as IKEA.

 

Like IKEA is the place you want to be when you are exhausted (not to mention dehydrated from my morning run), and so yes, as you could guess, after wandering around for about 3 hours trying to take notes with that stubby pencil I found myself at the till paying for waaaaaay more stuff than I bargained for. Napkins, votive candles, glass bowls, picture frames, pillow cases….they all seem so cheap when you put them in your cart but boy they add up!

 

How come I forget this every time?

 

And after forking over my credit card to the cashier instead of heading home to relax with my family I decided to hole up at a local restaurant where I drank bad coffee and worked for about 3 hours straight. Once home I was over tired and jangly and although I had the opportunity to hit the sack early I made the brilliant decision to start putting IKEA purchases together at 10PM.

My husband wisely chose to go to bed.

 

Hello earth to Elizabeth??????

Ummm isn’t your signature coaching program called Overwhelmed to Optimal?

How ’bout walking your talk girl?

 

You know what comes next right?

 

 I woke up SPENT, like Kentucky fried chicken fried.

A Crisis of Spirit

 

Of course like you I had a million and one things to do that day but all I could do was stand in the middle of my kitchen and stare out the window.

 

Should I wash the breakfast dishes? Go upstairs to my office and work? Put on a load of laundry? Start my taxes? Make those calls I had been putting off? I could not make a decision to save my life. I had planned on getting together with a friend for lunch downtown but she had canceled that morning due to illness so I had a blank slate of a day.

 

However I didn’t feel like doing anything– not reading a book, looking at the computer screen, talking to another human, or watching TV. Everything I considered doing just felt like ….yuck.

 

Yep. I was wiped. Battery fully drained.

 

I had been so looking forward to my lunch date with my friend as we had not gotten together for a long time and that made me feel bummed out.

 

I not only felt blue, but heavy of limb and clumsy too. After walking into a wall, dropping a dish in the sink, and spilling my coffee all over the footstool and carpet (and our carpets had just been professionally cleaned three days before I might add) I knew I wasn’t just physically and mentally tired, I was experiencing another crisis of spirit.

 

As a life coach I am getting better and better at quickly pulling myself out of these kind of nosedives.  So on a mental level I knew what I needed to do (take some kind of action) but I also knew with a little guidance I could head of this crisis of spirit before it gathered any more steam and enjoy myself while doing it.

Nuggets o’ Wisdom

 

 

One of the perks of being a Martha Beck trained life coach is that I have lifetime access to Martha’s call library so I grabbed my iPad, picked a talk that resonated with my current mood, popped my ear buds in and went out to the backyard where I sat in the sun, sipped tea and listened to Dr. Beck’s nuggets o’ wisdom.

 

One of the first things she said was; (and I am paraphrasing from memory here)

“Take the next hour off thinking about work, or your relationships, or money or anything your are anxious about and get to work enjoying life”.

 

Yes! That is exactly what I needed to hear.

She went on (again I am paraphrasing)

“Get rid of anything you are forcing, the anxiety, the attachment and enjoy where you are right now”.

 

‘I can do that’. I thought.

 

So I sat in my backyard, soaked up that Vitamin D, enjoyed the scent of the lilacs, made myself two pots of tea (it was a long call) and by lunchtime I felt like my old self again. Not only did I feel like my old self again but I felt infused.

 

 

 

The simple steps of taking time to rest,  to listen to Martha’s talk, to gaze at the flowers, to experience the peacefulness of it all, well it conspired to put me back in touch with my authentic self, or higher self, or source, or soul, or God, or guardian angel, or life force, or the  great ‘cosmic muffin’ in the sky (the term that the amazingly talented writer Anne Lamott uses) – whatever term you use insert here, and this in turn guided me to what I needed to do next.

 

And what I wanted to do next was organize my kitchen cupboards.

 

Yes! my energy had completely shifted from ‘schlumpadinka’ (if you watched Oprah you will get that reference but if you don’t know let’s just say it involves wearing sweat and / or yoga pants) to ‘I am stoked to be cleaning out my cupboards’.

 

Now that IS a miracle -as I am not the type of gal who gets excited about cleaning, just ask my husband.

 

It sounds weird but tidying my kitchen cupboards was exactly what I felt like doing in that moment, despite all the other ‘urgent’ stuff on my to- do list, …(I had just bought those new bowls at IKEA too and my rule of thumb is that for every new thing that comes into our house one thing needs to go out, so it really was perfect timing).

 

When it was done and I stepped back to take a look at our mismatched funky cups, at the colourful mugs with slogans like; ‘I can never find a book long enough or a cup of tea big enough to suit me’; ‘Good morning handsome’; ‘Rocket Gaming-Rocketing to Success’ (my hubbies former employer), alongside the china tea cups picked up during our travels, and coffee mugs that has been given to us a gifts, and in the cleaned out cupboard to the right sat those neatly stacked bowls.

 

I must say taking it all in I felt a kinda joy.

 

This resting and tuning into one’s inner wisdom, and carving pockets of peace out of our hectic lives -this stuff really works!

(although it might slip my mind from time to time as I just get so darn excited to try everything, do everything, go everywhere, burn the candle at both ends…but hey, I am learning.)

 

So if you happen to be in the midst of your own crisis of spirit, feeling run down, exhausted or disoriented, be kind to yourself! and go do the ONE thing that will feel best to you right now, whether that means a nap, a walk, calling a friend or yes, even rearranging your cupboards.

 

You will be so glad you did.

Xo
E

 

PS

Watch this space – details about the Power Posse ‘Make It Happen’  group coaching and event series for local women will be coming very soon!