Staying Inspired During Life\’s Challenges

How do you keep going when you  feel like you are immersed in challenges?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Call someone you trust. Ask them if you can POUR your heart out.
2. Consider what you think a dear friend would do if her or she were in your shoes?
3. Exercise. Get outside and walk noticing what is in FRONT of you as you walk.
4. Trust that, “This too shall pass.”
5. Give yourself the gift of a few simple PLEASURES, like movie day, a day at home or ordering in food.
6. DOODLE
7. Read uplifting quotations or STORIES.
8. Realize that there is always going to be someone in a better place than you and in a worse. STOP comparing lives.
9. Make friends with the UNKNOWN. Say: ” I don\’t know right now but soon, clarity will come. I am still OK when I just don\’t know.”
10. BEGIN something, and if you don\’t feel into it, allow yourself to change your mind.
11. Be CURIOUS about your situation\’s “BIGGER PICTURE.”
12. Choose a spiritual practice and do it. For example: Look into a lit candle\’s flame and practice “being in the moment.”
13. Write down what you appreciate about yourself RIGHT NOW
14. Remind yourself that you have experienced and lived through challenges before. Recall one of them, and review how things evolved.
15. Remind yourself that you are not ALONE.

Grieving is never top on anyone\’s choice list.

• I remember a woman saying, “OMG, this has been the worst month of my life.  So many losses and disappointments with people I thought would be there for me. I am in so much pain and anxiety.”  Long story short, two things that helped her were: to email me in the morning, sharing three thoughts right in that moment, and two was to weep and weep whenever and wherever, with no judgment or interpretations.
• Another woman was dealing with being solo and her only child heading to college.  She felt like she had to smile for her daughter, and inside she was heartbroken.  I suggested she share with her daughter, that she will cry and her daughter doesn\’t have to do anything about that.  They are feelings, not a big problem to solve now.  That helped her. Loneliness is part of transitions. Who wouldn\’t be sad saying,” see ya later”, to someone you deeply adore.
• When a woman shared that she dreaded going to work because she felt unseen and under-appreciated, just saying what was going on, reduced some anxiety. She could begin to look at different parts of herself and different choices.

Challenges happen over and over. Gather tools.  Go within. Ask in the inner world for some support, as well as, in the outer world.

Take good care,

Natalie

Natalie Caine M.A.

Life In Transition, What\’s Next?
(800) 446-3310 or (310) 454-0040
Los Angeles

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Natalie Caine Founder of Empty Nest Support Services

Natalie Caine is the founder of Empty Nest Support Services. When her daughter was a senior in high school, she realized that as a soon-to-be “empty nester,” she would be undergoing a major life shift. Not wanting to confront this transition alone nor have her many friends face this abyss without strong support, she created a support services group, which quickly grew into a new career and an exciting full-time business.