What If– You knew exactly what your next step should be?
Research Shows – Your brain takes your experiences and stores them creates habits of thought and behavior based on what was done in the past. Changing a habit takes time and effort. When we change something it forces us to see things in a new way. This increases the engagement of the prefrontal cortex by up to 25%. The brain constantly looks for ways to be efficient. The increased engagement means more work. This plays into the aversion to change we all experience sometimes.
The cliché ‘Life is a journey’ while overused, is true. There are seasons in our lives. When we get to the halfway mark, otherwise known as midlife, we assess our progress either consciously or subconsciously. It’s a checkpoint. Am I where I should be? Am I where I want to be? Does this life really fit me anymore?
Self-reflection and deeper questions bubble up. What is my path, my purpose, and my legacy? There is a crack in the status quo. It’s a spiritual pull that interrupts your current reality. For some it’s a slow awareness that tugs at you for others it’s an abrupt change or loss that triggers the awareness. You find yourself questioning things that once seemed steady, doubt, discontent, and uncertainty creep in.
This call to adventure is often met with resistance, reluctance, and confusion. After all it’s not like we get an email that says ‘ It’s time to change careers from xyz company to your own pottery business. Please start this next Friday at 8 am. You are guaranteed success but will hit a slow spot 3 months in, simply ride it out. Love, Your Soul’
Energetically speaking, this is a pull from the 11th or Etheric Chakra. It’s a call to transform all that you have experienced into something with deeper meaningful and more aligned with your soul path.
Change can be scary. This call to adventure has some weight to it feels important. How do you know if it’s simply a bad day (month) or your soul path calling you?
3 Telltale Signs Your in the Resisting a Call to Adventure
Grumbling – a persistent low level dissatisfaction with the status quo that keeps popping up frequently followed by doubt and uncertainty. You can push it way for a little bit but it keeps popping up.
Hypercriticism – micro analyzing everything that’s been done and finding fault with everything. This is most often directed towards yourself but can be towards another person or a situation. It is very different from honest self-evaluation and critical thinking. It’s more akin to creating a heavy mental club with which to pound yourself with.
Questioning the Pull – ‘What the hell am I thinking/doing’ convinced your off your rocker you defend the status quo. Everything is fine, no need to change; what you have is enough, bargaining with yourself, ‘if I just focus on the positive everything will be fine’. This is often occurring right before you fall asleep or during a 3 am wake up. The more you try to rationalize the worse it gets. The solution is not to put a happy face on and suffer in silence.
The Call to Adventure happens many times throughout your life. The one at midlife seems more significant because it is. It’s why we call it a midlife crisis. Everything is up for evaluation. That is actually a really good thing. Rest assured it isn’t all about dramatic, rash action.
Integration: One of the first steps is to soften your resistance. Explore what your possibilities are. Play the What If game. What if I changed jobs…then imagine the best possible outcome (think expansively). Do this with everything that pops up to help you ease back the resistance and reluctance to change.
Once the resistance is turned down watch for synchronicities.