Break Down or Break Through?
As we approach the end of the year, it’s easy to feel exhausted. Some of us are feeling the stress of completing projects before Xmas. It can feel like “the quickening”!
Throughout the course of our lives most of us have gone through a particularly difficult time. We feel if anything else is added to our workload/stressload/challenges something will give. And it’s scary if we feel like we’re the thing that will give way!
But what if I told you that your sense of breaking down, is actually the dawn of a break through?
Let me introduce you to the process of Perturbation.
Perturbation is the process that happens to us when we’re in a state of high stress, high emotion, high change and high levels of feeling uncomfortable. It’s the stage right before we have a BREAKTHROUGH! Not a breakdown. Similar to the process of creating a pearl or a diamond.
Think back to a time in your life where you were in a situation just like this.
A friend of mine is an incredible woman and one of three of us that has a side project of health and business retreats. She is the founder of a women’s only networking group, founder of a health and wellness expo, a naturopath, mother of 2 children under 5, wife, daughter…well, you get the idea – SHE’S BUSY!
Recently, she had so much on the boil, so many of the proverbial balls in the air that it was quite remarkable to watch. She had the expo, the networking events in 3 towns, was facilitating mastermind groups, still did all of the kindergarten and day care drop offs and pick ups, and attended meetings about our retreats. In addition (because all of this wasn’t enough) she was also coordinating and interviewing network members for her YouTube channel.
I tell you this not to make you feel guilty, or like an underachiever if you’re not so stacked on, but to stress that out of the other side of this is incredible growth.
Because what happens as a result of Perturbation is a POP! that rebirths us into more than what we were before.
And the reason for this is because the situation we’ve created for ourselves forces us to develop at such a rapid rate that growth is an inevitable side effect.
It’s also a matter of mindset, which means that growth can happen regardless of the situation.
While you’re going through your own stage of Perturbation, it helps to think of the following:
- I am capable of handling anything that comes my way. I’m never given more than I can handle, and it’s okay to reach out for help. This too shall pass
- What is the lesson here for me? What am I learning that before this, I didn’t know about?
- What am I learning about myself? What am I learning about others?
- What is the opportunity in this?
- How can I use this situation to benefit others?
Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.
As Dr. Robert Schuller once said: Tough times never last, but tough people do. How you emerge from a time of perturbation rests on your mindset towards it. Take care of yourself with enough rest, nutritious foods and exercise to sustain you.
Now, go and grow!