By chance I met up with an old and dear friend of 20 some years recently. In days gone by, we were very close, but as time passed we moved on to new lives and had lost touch for more than a decade. It was really wonderful to hear of all the adventures he had lived especially the stories of his experiences in the Peace Corps in Africa. Some of those adventures seemed pretty scary to me but he told them with a contagious enthusiasm that made them seem entertaining and soon I was wondering how a person could be so comfortable in such precarious circumstances. I thought to myself that should I take such a risk living, I might develop PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) thinking of what could have happened!
Some people just have the urge to do something fantastic and edgy. My friend said he was at a point in his life that he now describes as "bored" when he decided to join the Peace Corps. His relationships were unsatisfying and he felt stuck in every area of his life. He said he needed to "shake up" his world.
Many people get bored when their life seems to be stagnating. Some feel the need to know a higher purpose, to be contributing to something bigger, to be doing more with their life. A darkness seems to loom around them. They feel it there. It is sometimes described as being "blue" or having "mild depression." To be sure, without these feelings of despair or being "blue", there would be little incentive to pick yourself up and move towards your true calling.....
These "dark" times can be the perfect time to begin a new chapter in your life...to look beyond the darkness of your feelings and decide to find the light in your life. Recognizing and admitting how you feel and then making a decision to find the light in your life takes courage. It can be more comfortable to continue an unpleasant lifestyle than to take the first step out of the box, out of your comfort zone.
Can you visualize taking that first step? When you truly step into the light, you begin to live with enthusiasm. You can do anything, including living a satisfying and meaningful life. It takes courage to take that first step. It means leaving codependent relationships with stress, anger, unforgiving and unhealthy habits of self abuse behind.
