Only Six Months?! Looking back on Season 4

posted 31st July 2011    Written by: Juliana    CATEGORY: All Posts, Juliana, Life Lesson, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 4

In some ways, I can’t believe six months have gone by.  In other ways, I can’t believe it’s only been six months. It’s a similar feeling when you’re in love and you realize you’ve been together for a year, but it feels both shorter and longer than that. I don’t mean that I’m in love with my other Stratejoy ladies (though they are pretty awesome) but rather that the richness of our collective experience here has totally messed with my sense of time.  We’ve fallen in love, changed careers, changed countries, become parents, planned weddings and learned so much about ourselves. Wow.

Six months ago, my primary state of being was exhaustion.  I was listless, bored, sluggish, and had lost a lot of the “spark” that I used to be known for. I felt defeated. There was also a part of me that was angry:  Angry at myself for letting it get to this point, and angry that I seemed to be resigning to it. Through a lot of reflection (and some of the exercises in The Joy Equation) I was able to get back in touch with myself and what I really wanted.  I filled out an application for Season 4 and this crazy journey began.

 My goals…

My goals for this half of the year were to get my energy back & understand my health more, to work on becoming a creativity coach and foster my music career, and to learn to love myself enough to remember and reconnect with the things that light me up.

How’d I do?

I have learned so much about my own body in these last six months.  Though I’m still a long way away from my goals, I am feeling so much healthier.  I’m taking naps when I can, eating the right stuff, and being much more active.  ”Tired” is no longer my default feeling.  I’ve had a poem published, gone on tour and am almost finished with a creativity coaching certification program (just have to take an exam!) and I’ve spent four weeks in Nashville, TN exploring the possibility of a songwriting career there.

As far as reconnecting with delight, I’ve gotten to swim in the ocean, paint, play with my baby niece, learn more about cooking, hang out with old friends and make some new ones, see a whole bunch of live shows, and go on regular dates with the hubs.  I cannot even begin to express how much happier I am now than I was at the start of February, and it’s not because great things have happened to me, but because I’ve learned how to cultivate and care for my own happiness.

 The Most Important Thing…

As I leave to become part of the Stratejoy Alumni, the most important thing I’d like to leave you with is that, no matter how extraordinary all of our journeys have seemed to you, they are achieved by ordinary means. All of us have taken small steps, made tiny changes, that have added up to big, huge leaps and results. Yes, some of those changes seem to come on fast – but there have been lots of little things going on in the background to lead to those things.  We are not “special” in the sense that we are different and somehow more able than you are – you are just as capable of changing your life for the better.  In fact, I highly recommend you apply for Season 5 if you’re feeling stuck in a QLC or in need of some changes in your life.

I have changed a lot and I continue to evolve, and slowly but surely I’m becoming the woman I want to be. Being a Stratejoy blogger gave me a container to explore that process, and I am so blessed to have been able to share it with my fellow bloggers, and share in your stories through comments and emails.  I hope you’ll keep in touch with me at my own blog, my music website, and on Twitter (@writeplayrepeat) so we can keep this conversation going.

 

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