Yep, you read it right.

Green nail polish holds special powers. Not the Green Lantern superhero kind but the ‘I’m slowly crawling out of the cocoon’ kind.

I’ve only ever worn green nail polish two times in my life. The first time was this past autumn when I was holed up in a downtown hotel trying to recover from weeks of sleep deprivation and stress (partly due to my eldest son who has issues with anxiety and sleep, but I am happy to report that this is much improved of late). The second time was, well is- now, as I sit typing this, my first ‘real’ blog post for my new business. Last week I said ‘good bye’ to the wonderful people I had worked with these past ten years, and embarked on a new venture as a Life Coach.

I have been considering the significance of these two events (the weekend hotel stay and subsequent resigning of my job) and have realized that the green nail polish was, and is, a sign. Sound weird? It’s not really. Let me explain. After experiencing several years of upheaval; the birth of my second child, my son’s diagnosis, the passing of my beloved Nana, my husband leaving us for six months while he retrained for a new career, moving house with two little ones, back to work and then off work again for child care reasons….I felt like I had been pummeled by waves and left washed up and exhausted on the beach.

The weekend I spent in that hotel room, away from my husband and two kids, was the first ‘alone’ time I have had in almost nine years and boy, I was ready for it! Even after a night of decent sleep, I was still so tired that I almost couldn’t bring myself to leave that lovely hotel, but did eventually. I went out into the unusually foggy October afternoon and bought a meal from the food truck across the street, and then slowly made my way around the nearby art gallery. It was such a gift, to stroll at my leisure, to not to feel rushed, to not have to speak to anyone, to have absolutely nowhere to be. On my way back to the hotel I passed a department store make-up counter and purchased the green nail polish on a whim. Back in my short stay ‘cocoon’ I positioned myself in front of the floor to ceiling window, six stories or so above the dark city streets and carefully applied it. While the colored traffic lights blinked on and off in the night fog, I looked down at my hands, admiring my slick green nails. Who was this woman who had left her family to check into a hotel one hour away from her home, and painted her nails a strange color? Who could sit for hours, in a bathrobe that wasn’t her own, drinking complimentary tea and coffee, while watching the seagulls swoop between buildings?

Looking back at that weekend in October I can see now that it was during those two days of ‘escape’ that my new identity began to emerge. I had started to dream about a new way of being, of new possibilities. I returned home to my husband and young boys rested, energized and happy to see them. Over the next few months I weighed the pros and cons of making a ‘big move’, eventually signing up for Martha Beck’s Life Coach training program, started to coach volunteer clients, and began to plan the opening of what was to become Full Flight Life Coaching. I had moved from dreaming to scheming.

In our coaching training we learn about what Dr. Beck refers to as the change cycle or phases of human metamorphosis, which is depicted as a square with four quadrants through which we continuously cycle. Square one is the meltdown that follows some type of major event (falling in love, divorce, getting the job of your dreams, losing your job, having children, etc.), square two is the reformation, square three is emerging and square four is full flight. The last few years have definitely been my meltdown phase but the period in time stretching from that hotel weekend last Fall to this glorious June day, it has been all square two and three.

You will know you have survived square one (what may have felt like the end of the world) and have arrived on the shores of square two, when you start to experience strange urges; like wanting to repaint all the bedrooms in the house, learn an instrument, sign up for a workshop on something you know nothing about, cut your hair really short, or um…. paint your nails green. What happened to me over this last year is that basically my soul refused to continue living in the manner that it thought it ‘should’ and instead opted for the life it truly craved. Following my meltdown, my brain was no longer in charge, and my soul, well aware that my life was half over and that there were still many things it wanted to do, had taken over.

For those of you who think you may be emerging from a square one meltdown into square two reforming, I say to you;

well done, you made it! But still;

beware!

These phases of metamorphosis are never easy and that is why they are also often referred to collectively, as the ‘the hero’s journey’, and we know what the great heroes had to do don’t we? Battle the many headed Hydra, resist the Sirens song, face Voldemort in the dark forest alone…

You are entering into unknown territory. As is written on ancient maps; ‘after here be monsters’ (you know, back when people thought the world was flat and didn’t know what lay beyond the borders, they imagined a place full of monsters), and for square two but more so, square three, this may be true. Why is this true? Why like the archetypal hero, will you encounter monsters in square two and three? For the simple reason that these two phases will bring about  goulish fears (what if I don’t make any money as a life coach?… ahem…). These mental boogeymen, whom at first you will want to resist, you may grapple with for some time (like, years as I did), but after the dust has settled and you are exhausted (as I was in that hotel room last October), you  will come to a place of acceptance, and then big changes will follow, changes that others around you may in turn, resist.  Some of you who are now in square two, may eventually even end up parting ways with those close to you, who are threatened by theses changes, as your soul rises to reassert itself and make the necessary life adjustments in square three.

And what if you resist these instructions sent from your soul? Tune them out, walk away, pretend they don’t exist? Well…

…’What we resist, persists’.

But that is a post for another day.

Yes my friend, green nail polish really does have power.

Heed the signs, keep slaying the monsters and you just might be headed towards the life of your dreams.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thanks for allowing me space in your in box.

Elizabeth

Full Flight Life Coaching

www.fullflightlifecoaching.com

PS

If you know of anyone who may be overwhelmed by square one changes or has made it to square two but feels stuck or confused, they may benefit from a free 60 minute Strategy Session with me.