Managing life transitions

There is much excitement in my child’s class this week – the eggs they have been watching for 3 weeks had finally hatched! Eight baby chicks greeted us this morning. A quick photograph of their excited faces captured their joy and made me smile all the way home. This excitement made me realise how I was slowly adapting to the life transition of my daughter starting school. I found it a difficult transition to adapt to, and was still hanging onto the loss of not having her around me all the time.

 How do we manage life transitions? We all face them. We need to adapt to them, to allow us to be in the present rather than always looking behind us.

Transitions,

or changes, can often be foreseen, such as your child starting school or retirement from permanent employment. Alternatively the sudden death of a loved one or the end of a relationship can be totally unexpected. Whether these transition in our life are minor or not, they all have one thing in common: they present us with opportunities to make changes to our existing life. Transitions force us to close one chapter of our life, and start a new one, placing us on a path we have not walked before.

Trapped in between two doors 

Often I see clients who have experienced a major life change, and they tell me that they are ‘trapped in between two doors’. They recognise that one door (or chapter) has closed. But they can’t see a way of opening another door to move forward. Living with a suspended transition has not been easy for them. They are unable to close the door of the last chapter of their life, which means they are unable to move onto the new life path. They find letting go of the ‘way things were’ is difficult, but they also find the new direction daunting, fraught with fear, doubt and uncertainty. If this is not dealt with, the resulting emotional or physical effects of this uncertainty can lead to problems at work, home and relationships.

‘Letting go’ with counselling. 

Counselling can help you ‘let go’ and accept the changes; you can move on to a new chapter of your life. You’ll then look back and realise that something good has come out of an apparently overwhelming experience. You will have realised that a transition you have faced has resulted in personal growth, since your outlook upon life has changed as well. Adapting to life transition can be a tough but often a rewarding journey.

How can you make the most of a life transitions?

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