The challenge of choosing change when life is pretty good
Just before I made the choice to open Volair, I felt SUPER stuck! I’ve talked about this previously at a different time in my life when my perspective was different (and also there was a different purpose to the story), but still relevant.
At this time, everything in my life seemed logically really good on paper. If I had made my decision with a pros & cons list, the pros definitely would have won out.
I had a good job that used many of the skills I had trained in. I was doing work that was really meaningful to many people. I had decent pay, benefits, and an amazing pension.
Yet, I felt unfulfilled. My work was meaningful, but I was blocked from working with my gifts in my zone of genius - MOVEMENT.
This was one of my most challenging transitions in life. Yes, when my common-law partner died, that transition had its own set of challenges. But the decision to change was made for me. I really had no choice. I had to go along with it.
In this case where I felt illogically unhappy, I had to make the decision myself. There were 3 things that really supported me to take the first steps and initiate my transformation:
Community - I found a community to connect with that was super supportive of transformation. They were comfortable with change and emotions and expression and all those things that were always met with resistance from my usual communities of colleagues and friends.
Movement - I started taking a pole class that was more focused on embodied intuitive movement rather than tricks and choreo, which have a different energy based on logic, strength and precision. The intuitive movement helped me reconnect with my body in different ways and balanced the strength and discipline of the tricks classes.
Reflection - I started taking some time to slow down and really reflect on my life. It helped me to realize what my strengths were, what really lit me up, and made me see how connected many of the "chaotic" activities in my life were.
Once I had these things in place, I found it much easier to "know" what to do with my life. To see where I could go and to recognize what I actually desired from my life.
And so, I embarked on a new journey and devoted myself to it.
But when I say I was devoted, I do not mean that I was attached. I was devoted to my transformation, but unattached to the process. The un-attachment gave me the courage to take a bunch of first steps by following different ideas and reaching out to different organizations to open myself up to the possibilities that were out there.
From there, things started to fall into place. It was not exactly a beautiful flowing process - there were lots of bumps, challenges, tough times, ups and downs. But as tough as the journey was, now that I'm on this side of it, I wouldn't give it up for the world. The lessons and the growth have been integral to the person I am today and have actually been incredibly supportive in enabling me to realize my values and priorities.
And of course, this experience was also a big inspiration for the development of Volair’s Devotion program, which uses Community, Movement, and Reflection in a semi-structured circle-based program to support participants through periods of growth and breakthrough to align their lives with their values and priorities. Our email community is always the first to know when a new program or offering is launched. If you want to be among the first to know, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Much love always,
Melanie