Lighting the way…

I went to watch Heart of the Beast with Brad Pitt last night. As in I went to the movie with Brad Pitt in it. I did not go to the cinema with Brad Pitt!

Anyhoo! I hadn’t really paid much attention to what the film was about beforehand, so for quite a while I kept expecting the enemy to turn up.

Once I realised that probably wasn’t where the story was going, something else started to fascinate me.

Without giving away any spoilers, the worse James’s situation got, he always has something to draw on, another pocket, another stash, another tool, another bit of knowledge from his years in the army, another way to make something out of seemingly nothing.

And it got me thinking about a conversation I’d had just before going to the cinema.

I had flown solo, and so popped myself down at a table where I knew one beautiful person, and ended up talking to someone I hadn’t met before.

It was one of those beautiful conversations that somehow gets deep really quickly.

We talked about the uncomfortable times in life, the uncertain times and what it means to navigate them.

I reflected on how much energy goes into trying to control a situation, when often, the thing we’re desperately trying to change is actually outside our control.

So what if, instead of putting all that energy into trying to remove the uncertainty, we put some of it into becoming more resourced within those times.

Building our own toolkit, our own resources, the steps to try and follow, the go-to people, thinking ahead of the places that help us breathe and ground, ways to remember what we have already navigated and survived. Noting those tiny go-tos that help us to remember who we are, the gold, in and amongst the chaos.

So that our actions aren’t to try and control, nor to numb and avoid our way through (Talking about the ones that can come heavily disguised as self-care too! Trust me, talking to myself here too! )

But to take some courage and reassurance that when uncomfortable times happen, we have somewhere within ourselves, and around ourselves, to connect in with.

And perhaps, little step by little step, together we can become more comfortable with the uncomfortable and the unfamiliar becomes a little more familiar.

Not because we know what’s going to happen next, but because we have built up that trust within ourselves to meet whatever comes.

And I love that joy belongs here too, as it absolutely did in the movie!

Not as something waiting for us once we’ve finally sorted everything out, nor as the reward when we have got to the bank on the other side/the uncertainty is over – but in the middle of it all.

Yup.

Joy gets to be the light in the tunnel, not just the light at the end of it.

Keen for some more joy in your world, you can download 100 ways to say yes to life.

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