NAVIGATING TRANSITIONS is an incredibly important life-skill…

Navigating transitions! Let’s start off by digging into the meaning of these words.

Navigating: ‘To skillfully direct your way through circumstances and situations in the easiest way possible, while caring for everyone’ – the older, deeper meanings include ‘To steer a ship, set in motion’.

Transitions:  ‘a change or shift from one state, subject, place, etc. to another’ – the older meaning includes ‘change, a passage from one condition or action to another’.

Life is full of transitions. Sleep to waking. Day to night. Night to day. New moon to full moon. Home to work. Births. Deaths. Moving home. Work time to holidays, and back again. And so many smaller transitions on between everything – moving from one task to another, growing in relationships, and so much more. Navigating transitions well helps everyone and everything.

I used to be AWFUL at transitions. I’d fight them, struggle through them, and often collapse in a heap, all smashed up by my futile struggles. My poor old pets paid my price, because they had to deal with my crash, and I couldn’t;t support them as they needed through their journey.

Last week I talked about LETTING GO. That’s one essential ingredient. One other thing you need to do is to open up to change, and allow the discomfort of the new to settle in. But possibly the most important thing you need to build when it comes to navigating transitions well is RESILIENCE. The ability to bounce back quickly and easily.

Practical tips for navigating transitions well

The first thing you need to do is self-care. A lot of it, and often. Physical, mental, emotional, energetic, diet, social, all facets of your life need to be nourished. It takes time to build a strong self-care practice with momentum. And then when you are hit with (or planning for) a transition, you need to ramp your self-care up even more.

Why? Because self-care naturally strengthens your resilience. Navigating transitions always tests your resilience, because it’s always challenging in one way or another. So the more you prepare, all the time, the more prepared you will be for planned (and unexpected) transitions in your life.

This also means that you have WAY more capacity to support your beloved pets as you are all navigating transitions together. And the more your pets can depend on you, the easier their transitions become.

I work very hard on presence. being in my body. Feeling the feelings, even when they are uncomfortable. Relaxing into whatever it is that I need to flow through. Navigating transitions can be surprisingly easy when you let go and allow. And stop trying to control how it’s all unfolding.

The more you can be fluid, flexible, and adaptive to circumstances as you move through them, the more relaxing transitions become.

Navigating transitions also demands that you accept new things into your life. They always feel strange, and often uncomfortable, at first. This is a lot easier with planned traditions – ones that you know are coming.

Unexpected transitions – emergencies, illness, deaths, disasters of one kind or another are much, much harder to meet.

I ask myself this question often in those times.

“What is the best thing that could come out of these circumstances?’

That helps me spiral up into possibility, instead of down into doom.

Loving touch with your pets will help you all too! And lots of it.

If you are struggling with navigating transitions, I can help. I support people and their pets through all kinds of transitions, all the time. Email me at [email protected] to organise a support session!

Here’s a short video of me discussing this topic.

– Enjoy this article? You can check out last week’s one at this link.

– Want to work with me to create harmony for your pets (and maybe for you) with holistic veterinary consultations, intuitive insights, and energy healing? Drop into www.thehealingvet.com and book a free call with me. And if you’d like to learn how to heal your pets (and yourself) with loving touch and energy healing, check out www.wholeenergybodybalance.com

Gem in her warm jumper.