On Living Well..and Ending Well (yep, that means death and dying)

I entered deep into conversation on life and death with Dr. Helena Dolny and a community of fellow coaches at Aephoria Partners

Perhaps it seems strange to post this today (it’s Spring Equinox as I write), the season in the northern hemisphere that is often all about welcoming in new life and living. What we often don't speak to is that Spring is also full of death and dying. The new buds that don't make it. And then the resilient few that 'harden' in the winds then blossom into fullness later on.

How do they do it?

Metaphors aside, talking about living fully...and dying well is tough stuff. And I love being with the tough stuff. Not because it’s easy. But because brave conversations like the one we had yesterday with Helena, make the tough stuff that much easier to be with, understand and move through so that we can indeed blossom and thrive.  

As a Coach, it’s my job to be with the challenges my clients face. To sit along side them as they ride out painful endings…the bumps of a bad breakup, the later phases of grieving of a partner lost to cancer or a destabilising career jolt in an unforeseen and undesirable direction. 

[ Flashback: From my archives (and still highly relevant) here’s a conversation I had with Ruth Sowter on how to practice resilience when you’re dating. Felt right to dig it up and share here. Enjoy it. ]

So that they can eventually move beyond this moment and shift forward into new beginnings…a new loving relationship or a job that feels like expansion and fulfilment. 

Life, it seems, is about transition. And how we surf the waves of change that comes with life’s transitions determines whether we thrive…or merely survive. 

As Dr Lucy Hone confirms so beautifully in her TedTalk, we all face challenges in our lives. Those that learn the skills and tools to be with these challenges well, build a resilience that is at once gentle and strong. 

As I share my own personal and professional set of skills and tools with those I work with and those I love, I continue to build my own understanding and embodiment of what it is to stand up time and again and brush off that proverbial dust. 

It is taking the time it takes. 

And I could not do it without the communities I sit in, the coaches that guide me (yes, I get to be supported too), and my own ever-deepening connection to self and the natural world around me. 

This is what it is to live well for me right now. 

What is it for you?