Dealing with change

Well, it's been a while. Almost three years to the day since I last wrote a blog here. Where has that time gone? First of all, before I share that, I want to say, thank you for still being here and I apologise that I have not been.

Where to begin? Some of you might follow me on social media, I'm mostly found popping up on Instagram and have just sucummbed to LinkedIn after years of resistence (there we go, change). So, if you follow me somewhere, you will have an idea of what has changed.

I moved from the centre of Salisbury in January 23 and rented a little house in the countryside 14 miles from Salisbury but kept up some of my classes there. We'd thought perhaps country living would be for us, we liked aspects of it, but we needed to find the right location.

A year later we packed up all our belongings, drove them across the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland, put them in storage and headed off on our travels. At this point I stopped all in person classes and took a break from teaching on line whilst I travelled. I am not going to sugar coat it, the year living in rented was hard. In hindsight I am aware it impacted my mental health. I've been fortunate in life that, whilst I've experienced some difficult things, I'm quite a resilient person and managed. But, for the first time, I realised I'd not been managing that well at all.

Travelling for 3 months was a balm, we had some awesome experiences. We also had a few challenges to overcome but, those 3 months travelling through Thailand and New Zealand were immense and I'll treasure the memories forever. But, the biggest change was yet to come. Moving at the grand age of 57 to Northern Ireland. Now, I have made a big change before, I'd moved to Salisbury at the age of 48 having lived my entire life before that in the same place. I knew what it was like to uproot your life and begin again. Although then, I still had the same job, I could still see the same friends reasonably easily. So this move was different.

We'd enjoyed living away from the city and having green fields around us and opted for that again here in the beautiful Ards Peninsula. We live near the sea which we swim in often. But, moving to a new area, to a new culture (it is still the UK but life is very different) and not having jobs here or school age children, makes it all the more difficult to settle. I'm teaching online again but miss people in the room with me. I've called on that resilience I used to have, I have stepped out of my comfort zone. I have been on a few retreats with local teachers and groups, I have tried ecstatic dance for the first time, very freeing, I have started volunteering at a local community farm and joined a swimming group. I've been very fortunate that many of my friends from home have been to visit and I have now set up my retreats at home (and of course still run my collaboration retreats in England and next year Portugal). But, have I settled after 13 months. Not yet, it is a work in progress and that is ok.

Time is an interesting concept. Something that we never feel we have enough of, or a long long wait for something we want, or hours we have to fill. I like to think of it as a journey, a process, with various steps along the way. I am still in the rooting phase, and that is ok. I think I might begin to sprout soon though. If you are experiencing change and it feels a little bumpy, don't rush, don't think of things you must do or have to do, just take your time. As long as you know where you want to end up, the journey is yours, let it unfold in your time.

Our home, North Star in Northern Ireland