A Life in Progress: Rebranding Middle Age Krista O'Reilly-Davi-Digui

As we wrap up this season and prepare for the next season's theme of "Old stories. New Possibilities" I remind you about a practice I have that helps us walk in greater freedom, wholeness, and joy.
I share about the cycle of self-awareness, self-compassion, and imperfect action that anchors my work and life. And I share about the "Shift Your Experience" model/exercise that you can use when an old unhelpful story rises to the surface asking to be heard.


As always, I'm practicing with you and I share a few recent (honest and vulnerable) examples from my life where old stories that have been at play in my life/behaviour/relationships came to the surface. Because I waws able to 'see' them, I was then able to begin writing new stories that will help me thrive forward.


If you'd love some modeling and support learning to walk in greater freedom, come join the Brave + Beautiful Community! Join the Brave + Beautiful Community For Midlife Women | A Life In Progress

Or learn how we can work together privately: Coaching for Midlife Women who Choose A Brave and Joyful Life (alifeinprogress.ca)

Freedom is one of my core 5 values. It's also one of my top 2 values. As a personal value, what freedom means to me (us) as individuals can vary season to season. It needs to be personal and precise. We need to reevaluate and reorient on occasion for it to be a meaningful source of direction or a meaningful filter.
This week, I've been listening inward and asking myself:
What does Freedom look, sound, and feel like for ME in this current season of my life? How am I practicing freedom? How am I walking it out in concrete ways? Where am I not in freedom? What precisely is interfering? Where am I holding onto old stories, habits, feelings that pull me out of freedom throughout the day?


I heard a quote this morning that aligned with where my mind and heart have been. “Life will present you with people and circumstances to reveal where you're not free.” -Peter Crone


In this episode, in addition to talking about ways I'm seeking more freedom in a few specific relationships, I also share other ways that I'm practicing greater freedom in this season of my life - in finances, in my mind-body health, in my healing work, and more.


In addition, I share briefly about 3 different conflict styles or "social stances." Understanding our dominant stance, and recognizing that of others we're in relationship with, can be a huge help when it comes to practicing healthier, embodied conflict.


Links/Resources
As of today there are 9 spaces left in the Spring Session of the Brave + Beautiful Community!: Join the Brave + Beautiful Community For Midlife Women | A Life In Progress.

Happy spring! If you want to quiet the noise and practice a kinder way of being in your body and life, one of the most impactful choices you can make is to begin practicing Seasonal Living. There are, of course, many paths to wholeness, and many paths to a brave and beautiful life, but a seasonal living framework is one of the things that I know to be hugely impactful and empowering in life. It's a way to help us thrive and experience more joy in every season.

I began my seasonal living journey with menstrual cycle tracking in my early to mid-30s - and pretty quickly this changed my experience of life. I no longer felt buffeted about by hormonal shifts, changing moods, ebb and flow of energy. I began to understand what was happening in my body and the connection with my emotional state. It was here that my self-awareness soared and then I was able to become more proactive - I could plan accordingly.


Over the years my practice deepened and today I practice different layers of Seasonal Living. But today, we'll talk about using each seasonal shift throughout the year to look up (reorient and recalibrate), look in (slow downward to listen inward), and look around (make practical shifts or updates to our life) to support our overall wellbeing.


Links/Resources
Guided life visioning process: A Guided Life Visioning Process | A Life In ProgressPurposeful Printable Pack: Enjoy The Purposeful Printable Pack | A Life In Progress52 Mondays Seasonal Mindfulness Journals: 52 Mondays: Seasonal Mindfulness Journals | A Life In ProgressWhat's a Spring Season? What Is An Inner Spring Season? (How To Thrive In Spring Seasons) (alifeinprogress.ca)Join the Brave + Beautiful Community spring session: Join the Brave + Beautiful Community For Midlife Women | A Life In Progress

In 2016 I wrote a short post that went viral around the world. It clearly touched something deep in many people. Here's one tiny snippet from that post that I want to talk about today: "What if I embrace my limitations and stop railing against them. Make peace with who I am and what I need and honor your right to do the same."

SHOW NOTES

Part of the conversation about embracing our limitations is really a conversation about what determines our worth. What are your markers of success or value? I do not believe our value and worth are tied up in self-improvement (or performing or jumping through hoops). When we stop railing against the reality of life, and we make peace with the full truth of who and how we are, beautiful things begin to grow.


I also talk about the story that bigger is better and that many people believe a 'small life' is bad or less-than. 'Small' or 'big' aside, what I care about is if our life is values-aligned. If we're building a soul-honouring and sustainable life. A right-sized life.


One way to deepen self-trust and have your own back is by honoring or embracing your limitations. When we befriend our whole selves we are more able to recognize where we have leaky boundaries, we are intentional about who and what gets our limited resources, we fill up and pour out from a healthy place, we learn to truly value ourselves, We live with more impact and joy.


But the conversation doesn't stop here. When I talk about embracing our limitations, I also encourage us to embrace our strengths and gifts. We are both strength and struggle, tangled up together. This too is part of the work of quieting the noise and befriending ourselves - the fullness of who and how we are.


LINKS/RESOURCES

Find Krista on FB: A Life in Progress and also Rebranding Middle Age. Find her on IG.Join the Monday Morning Hope Map: Sign Up For The Monday Morning Hope Map | A Life In Progress.Learn how to work 1:1 with Krista - learn more here.Join the Brave + Beautiful Community: People on the waitlist get first option to join starting March 4th then early registration will open up and run March 11-22.

Relationships in middle age can be messy. They take work and nurturing at every stage of life. But in middle age - yikes! If you're growing, healing, becoming your most honest and integrated Self... this will affect your relationships. And this is as it should be.
SHOW NOTES
Healthy and brave relationships and community are so important to our health and wellbeing. But because they take work and we may at times feel like we're doing things so imperfectly or ungracefully, it can be tempting to withdraw or quit trying. But it's worth committing to ongoing skill-building and practice in this area.

But being messy and imperfect, in progress, is not a reason to give up. In fact, there is no other path forward. When things feel messy and challenging I like to remind myself "of course you don't know how to do this yet; you've never been here before!"

LINKS/RESOURCES
Find Krista on FB: A Life in Progress and also Rebranding Middle Age. Find her on IG.Embody a new story for your life: read here.Last chance to join the Make Space for Joy Workshop for free: sign up.Join the Brave + Beautiful Community: click here.

We all need rest, probably more than we’re getting. Expanding our view of rest beyond naps or Netflixing is helpful and life-giving! Perhaps what you most need right now is sensory rest or creative rest. Or maybe it’s lowering the bar and being kinder to yourself.
SHOW NOTES

This is a two-part conversation about rest – you can listen to part one here. In part two of the conversation I talk about the How of rest using my handcrafting a life vision worksheet (below) as a guide. NOT the how as in specific forms of rest (see the Rest Worksheets for that), but more how can we make space for rest or get creative and more flexible about rest.


I’m often surprised that most people I connect with have not heard of Dr. Saundra Dalton’s “7 Types of Rest.” In the worksheets (see below to get them for free), I add an 8th type – friendship with self – because befriending myself has been the greatest source of deep, abiding rest for me. Without this, no amount of other forms of rest can resolve the underlying sense of never being good enough, or the resulting striving and jumping through hoops to prove our worth, that so many people live with.


In this episode I share ideas to consider when exploring HOW you might make space for more rest in your life – whatever season you’re in, including the hardest of them. To get started, I share The 10 Commandments of Rest from REST, by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang.


LINKS/RESOURCES

Find Krista on FB: A Life in Progress and also Rebranding Middle Age. Find her on IG.Join the Monday Morning Hope Map: Sign Up For The Monday Morning Hope Map | A Life In Progress.Learn more about my Life Visioning Process.Learn how to work 1:1 with Krista – learn more here.Permission To Rest, Recalibrate and get resourced | A Life In ProgressGet the Rest Worksheets here (free): 8 Types Of Rest: Free Worksheets | A Life In ProgressRegister below for the new Joy Workshop coming early March or learn more here. And you can also buy part one here. Free registration for the new workshop runs Feb 19-March 1.