I am back after a 2 week hiatus and as much as I love traveling it always feels good to be back home. The only thing is I came home to an empty house. I spent my time away moving my kids into their respective colleges and now that I am back and officially an empty nester I have to say, I'm floundering and feeling a bit lost. I've spent the greater part of 24 years raising my kids and it's all I've known for most of my adult life. So now what? I don't know.
I do know I'm giving myself time and space and grace to move through this tidal wave of emotions and allow the next steps to reveal themselves. I'm resisting the urge and my habitual inclination to fill my time and space with busyness and 'to dos' and instead sitting with the uncomfortable feelings I am having with a sense of compassion and inquiry. These are the moments when my yoga and meditation practice come in super handy. I always say, 'we practice on the good days, so we have our practice to support us on the hard days'.
I also turn to author and teacher, Pema Chodron, whom writes masterfully on this subject:
"Our habitual patterns are, of course, well established, seductive, and comforting. Just wishing for them to be ventilated isn't enough. Mindfulness and awareness are key. When we are distracted by a strong emotion, do we remember that it is part of our path? Can we feel the emotion and breathe it into our hearts for ourselves and everyone else? If we can remember to experiment like this even occasionally, we are training as a warrior. And when we can't practice when distracted but know that we can't, we are still training well. Never underestimate the power of compassionately recognizing what's going on." – Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty
Amy Owen
Yoga Instructor + Birth Coach
