Greta Garbo 1932 Xavier J. Peg via Compfight
You wish you could go to Tahiti without your kids or spouse, for 1 week.
Don’t make any reservations, it’s just a phase.
You feel overwhelmed no matter how much you have to do. In fact, 1 item on the schedule is 1 too many.
Toss that list – it’s just a phase.
If your son leaves his towels on the floor or your daughter loses another jacket, YOU will lose it!
All is not lost – it’s just a phase.
When we feel something deeply, it’s hard to see the beginning or the end.
Like a ship out at sea, we are riding the waves of frustration, guilt, fear or confusion as they lap up around us. And we cannot see where we left shore and when we will reach our destination.
Instead we are left to worry and perhaps believe that we will be on this ship forever! Little do we know that if we had better eyesight, we would already see land. But thanks to Mother Nature, our 20/20 vision left us at age 42.
Most likely, we are experiencing a phase.
Maybe we can take a lesson from our years of motherhood, to help relieve the anxiety and keep us from walking the plank?
Case in point; do you remember Potty Training? Did it seem like it would never end? Did it end? By the way, if you are still in the midst of PT, it ends.
How about moody teens? That one seemed endless, and yet, before you knew it, you had your child back. And, if your child is still looking at you like you ate the last cookie on Earth, don’t worry – she’ll be back soon.
In fact, phases can look downright adorable in retrospect.
For example; there was the phase in which your daughter wore a tutu day in and day out for all of pre-K, including your family trip to the U.N. Or, the year your son insisted upon speaking like Yoda from Star Wars. That lasted 8 months, it did.
And what in your infinite wisdom have you discovered by living through and delighting in, your children’s phases? Patience and trust? How to choose a good bottle of wine?
How can you translate that knowledge to your phases? What can you do when you find yourself at sea?
As Yoda might say; “Trust in your Force, you must.”
Coach Me Quick Tips for Riding the Phase Waves:
1. If something is not going the way you would like it to, identify the phase. Name it and acknowledge it.
2. If something is going well and you want to truly enjoy it – that’s a phase too. Be sure to acknowledge the phases you enjoy a little more than the ones you don’t.
3. What (if anything) are you doing to perpetuate a negative phase? Sometimes what we resist just gets stronger. Where can you stop resisting?
4. This phase may be no fun, but what are you learning from it? If you learn it now, you may never have to go through this phase again.
5. How can you be more empathetic towards yourself and others? After all, they are experiencing phases too.
Just in an LA Phase,
Jamee
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