Our challenges are meant to wear us down...

As 2023 came to a close I noticed so many people sharing how ready they were for it to be done. They want to leave their problems, pain, and suffering in the past and step into the new year with a fresh perspective, motivation, and freedom. 

I totally get it. We want to move away from pain and towards pleasure but we can't truly move forward until we have reflected upon and integrated the wisdom of what all of these experiences have to offer us. 

Allow me to offer you an example of the necessity of both encountering and overcoming obstacles when it comes to personal growth and self-transformation.

My husband had a hell of a year. He had shingles on his face in January, developed alopecia and lost all his hair by the handful shortly after, contended with extremely challenging family dynamics, was covered in poison ivy, and to top it all off he's ending the year with a nasty cold.

And yet, Jeff would do it all over again.

The intensity of the path he walked burned off pieces of himself that were ready to die. Insecurities, self-doubt, injustice, fear of not being enough, doing enough, making enough. It was time for it all to go but it required a series of trials to stoke the inner fire of determination to birth a new version of himself. 

The minute we shaved what remained of his hair the sad, hurt, frustrated, young boy who lost his mother at a tender age, struggled with low self-esteem, who felt lost, angry, and alone and desperately needed to be loved finally got what he needed and a man emerged. The man he's always been in his heart. The man I fell in love with, the champion I've been patiently waiting to take the reigns of his life. 

It's been a tough year, but it was also one of the best years we've shared in the almost seven we've been together. This was the year I watched my husband come home to himself. 

The challenges we face are clarifying, they remind us of who we are to our core. These experiences and tests are meant to wear us down, to slough off the layers of protection that no longer serve us, revealing our true, shining, authentic selves. 

But only if we pause, reflect, and choose to learn. 

May the lessons from this year's challenges fuel you towards your dreams with clarity and determination. 

Wishing you a VERY Happy New Year and so many blessings!

Love, 

Hana