Cultivating Trust and Freeing Your Family
I remember the first time I set off on a vacation just for me! It was kinda scary and the idea of being away from my family was unsettling but when the trip came to an end I had a newfound freedom that I had never intended to cultivate.
Several (like soo many) years ago a friend invited me to attend a girl’s trip to Arizona. The ladies on the trip were all people that either I didn’t know, or had only briefly met. So, besides my pal, I was among a group of semi-strangers in a strange place.
I was so nervous and very apprehensive, and I made all of the excuses as to what I couldn’t go or needed to cancel. I was scared to leave my three kids back home for a week. Afraid that nobody else could do the job I did as a caretaker to the family. Scared that something might happen and I might miss it or maybe I would have handled it “better”. It was expensive and I was using that as another rock in my path. I had so many stories’s in my head as to why I shouldn’t go and had forgotten to look at the reasons why I should go.
I had never been away from my children and husband for a week before. Let’s face it, I needed a break. By the time I was 27 I had three kids. Me time was not something that was happening and I mean REALLY happening. Trips to the grocery store alone or Target were not “me time”, they were chores and it was still me taking care of others. So, I committed to this trip. Because I really did need some time to work on me.
Off to Arizona, I went!! So I was in this town I had never been, with a group of people I wasn’t close with, except my friend, and it was time to do some things for me! I had lovely meals with our group and we chatted and learned all of the ways that we were alike and all of the unique gifts others had to share. I took fitness classes that I had never thought of taking before, like Chair Dancing and Kundalini Yoga. We went on a hike together and rode bikes. I experienced my first shamanic journey and past life regression and it was awesome.
I checked in with my kids and hubby and yes I missed them, but they were getting what they needed and so was I. I learned to trust that my family could function without me in control, I made new friends, discovered fascinating things about the inner me and just decompressed.
That trip was so special that I went back and the second time I was snowed in and it ended up being 2 weeks, not 1. And again my family survived and it was another damn good adventure. So often we don’t give ourselves permission to do things for us. But, this is so important because how can we be at our best for our families if we are not nurturing ourselves. Step up to the edge, and say yes to something you’ve been hem hawing about. Do something that you have been dreaming of and create a new you in the process. Let go of the ideas and constraints you place upon yourself and throw caution to the wind. Growth requires movement and you have the tools to grow a garden of possibility