Change and Growth In Your Life

 Have you ever gotten a vehicle stuck in the snow or in the mud?  Do you remember how difficult it was to get out of being stuck, especially if you had to do it all by yourself?  Do you remember that often, you could not get un-stuck without calling for help from a tow truck driver or from others near by?  

To change the stuck in the snow situation, we had to change the thought that we could get un-stuck with no help.  Realizing that we were wrong and accepting that we were wrong is a big change.  It is also a metaphor for life where we have to move along and take responsibility for needing to change.

Too often, folks get stuck in a rut… a situation that is not healthy for them or for those around them.  Instead of making up their mind to change and grow, they instead play the victim and blame everyone and everything in their life for how stuck they are.

Very early in my spiritual journey, several of my teachers explained that each road block or stuck situation in my life was a chance to learn and to change.  Making that shift in my approach to life was a challenge because I was not raised that way.  Each time that I was feeling stuck, I had to learn to step back and to look at the lesson that the situation presented.  I learned so much!

I learned about setting boundaries, and about saying NO.  I learned about changing or releasing expectations.  I learned that people are exactly who they appear to be and not to have expectations about their behaviour.  I let relationships go.  I learned that when there are not any blocks to what I was doing, I was in the flow.  I was in balance. I learned to let people leave my life when they were trying to manipulate me, boss me around, or take advantage of me.  I learned over time how to be me.

Blessings,

Judy

When You Slip In The Mud

Picture from an email from a friend

Slipping in the mud is common, especially after heavy rains.    Does it have any meaning?  Yes, it does!

The blending of water (emotions) with the earth (materiality) is the physical manifestation of transition from one place to a next.  If you have ever fallen into mud, you know that you must wash it off.  You then go from dirty to clean, which shows the next step in the process – transformation.

We have been taught through science that all life was born out of the oceans washing up to the shore and creating mud.  Life literally crawled out of the mud to get to dry land.  This means that mud may also symbolize birthing.  If you fall in the mud, and get up, is it because you have this great idea that requires birthing?

People who are ungrounded, or flighty, will often have a “muddy” experience to remind the to get grounded.  The first warning of the need to be grounded is usually spilling water on the ground, and the formation of mud at one’s feet.  

What if you are out hiking and you get stuck in the mud?  This may be a physical reflection of being stuck in one area of your life – perhaps job, career, family, or even feeling stuck about what direction your life generally should go.  A clue about direction can usually be found in the geographic area that your mudslide occurred in.  

Let’s talk about mud slide.  The last several years there have been an extraordinary number (by my standards) of mudslides around the world.   Just as falling in mud or slipping in mud represents an issue for an individual, the mudslide represents an issue for a wider population.  Some of the issues:

• stuck in the old way of doing things – now is the time to let go.
• what you are doing and saying has no grounds – so the ground is swept away from you.
• so you think that you are morally or economically higher or better than others – let’s change that thought right now and sweep everything you have away from you.
• you think that you are beyond the basics – well, if your shelter and food are gone than you move right back to basics.  Maybe you can do it better this time!

Mud has a lot of lessons to teach.  Perhaps you will watch who plays in the mud, and who doesn’t with more interest.

Many blessings,

Judy