Meaningful life transitions

Many people struggle to accept and adapt to life changes and uncertainty. You may know people who dwell on what they can’t grasp or control, rather than what they do know and can control. Even indoor and outdoor settings may be discouraging or get out of hand. Are you affected at all? How might you react to make your life transitions more meaningful?

No matter what your age or background, your attitude about change and transition will touch on;

1) your personal life and relationships

2) job or career

3) finances

4) health and well-being

5) spiritual pursuits

As you identify if you're in early, mid- or late career, or retirement, the answers to the above sections will vary. Your health needs and priorities change with time and circumstances.  You may sense that feeling anxious or discouraged in one area of life negatively impacts other areas. But how often do you realize it? Which steps can you take to gain more focus and understanding to help clarify and solve matters before they rise out of control? Positive thinking  and focusing on goal-setting at any life phase has potential to enable you to experience a more meaningful life.

You can learn to recognize and localize problems, and then consider strategies to help you make smoother transitions in different areas of your life. Start by getting-to-know yourself better. The result is you’re better able to see how areas of your life relate and where you feel comfortable.

• On a personal level: relationships are rarely unchanging. Everyone evolves with time. Whether its family, friends or co-workers, it’s useful to get to know reasons why people change around us and also how and why we react to these changes. Personal goal-setting includes examining the past, present and future aims for varied relationships, from friendships, between parents and children to connections between intimate partners.
• On a professional level: settling into a position with life-long benefits is often a thing of the past. Young people explore jobs and careers within turbulent global markets. Mid- and senior career professionals are increasingly restless and can be forced to leave during downsizing. Even many traditional careers no longer have the predictability and stability they once did. More people experience multiple job transitions. There may be no single 'right fit.'  As people age and approach or live retirement, they also wonder what they should do next in life, and how to define new kinds of fulfillment. Professional goal-setting examines and plans pursuits which reveal that not all meaningful work will earn money. Some gives it away. 
• On a financial level: consider your basic needs and expectations for whatever phase of life you live now and what you imagine you will need for a comfortable retirement. Do you have employee benefits? pension options? are you self-supporting? make voluntary RRSP or superannuation contributions? Reflect on personal budgets, expenses, investments and savings plans.  Financial goal-setting involves evaluating what you have and what you aspire toward.
• On a health & well-being level: how do you feel and where would you like to be? We could all benefit from examining our eating, exercise and lerisure patterns and habits. Is there anything in your life choices that you suspect could be healthier? You may choose to go further than a self-evaluation. Begin by deciding if there's anything you'd like to change. The phrases, "you are what you eat," "you're only as old as you feel" may accurately reflect how you treat your body.  Health & well being goal-setting can be further broken down again.  
• On a spiritual level: your understanding of 'Higher Forces' influences the your chosen morals, ethics and also behavioural standards devised by Earthly societies.  That includes those civilisations which profess no belief in God.  We each decide what is acceptable or unacceptable in a given circumstance and period of our lives.  Our thoughts decide what we're trying to be, do and have. Spiritual goal-setting is a branch with religious and non-religious options to discover more intimate sides of yourself, your feelings and sense of direction.

Non-traditional pursuits begin with you

So many people today are struggling to find rewarding pursuits. It’s rarer now that people will settle into one position in one place for life. The thing is, everyone wasn't destined to follow traditional routes. You may not feel drawn to what other people do. You might have even tried some of these or other options already, sensed it wasn't for you and wondered what else was out there. Don't despair! It's never too late to exert influence on the evolution of your job or career. 

Ask yourself these preliminary questions: 

• What’s do you think is the problem with what you do now?
• How would you describe your talents and skills?
• Which tasks would you like to perform?
• Where do you imagine yourself working? How might you research jobs that would suit you?
• When would you plan to make the professional move?

• Why aren't you taking steps to get there?

As you learn to isolate your interests and identify your particular abilities, you will be surprised at what kinds of job options you will discover. Magicians, circus acrobats and unique artists may not be traditional careers, and yet, individuals in these and other disciplines can refine their dreams.

You may have heard of a businessman who gave up his management position to take up playing the jazz sax in a musical band.  What about the 2007 Australian Idol, Damien Leith, who is a pharmacist now turned international singer? Rock singers have moved on to work as alternative television producers. Bodybuilders have been known to follow film careers.   Jim Henson didn't grow up knowing he would become a well-known puppeteer. Mother Teresa wasn't born a nun.  Steve Irwin evolved into a zookeeper of dangerous animals.  Many other options exist as well.

Consider what is in your heart and listen to your innermost desires.   If money and circumstances were no object, what would you choose? As you learn to recognize what activities boost your energy level, you can shape these into part of a dream job.  Talk to people about your ideas. Find people who will support and encourage you. Together, you can figure out how to make things happen.

Near death and back for more life

Religions are said to have evolved to help people justify and deal with fears they associate with the unknown. Perhaps one of your dreams is to learn more about your emotions? For the most part, religious views deny death as an end. Many people describe unique spiritual and religious experiences.

Since Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) appear to people as miraculous, NDEs are connected with powerful religious overtones-“Higher Power.” Recent polls published in leading magazines revealed that 69 percent of Americans believe in angels and NDEs. How does this compare to your own belief system? Would this topic be controversial or rational in your mind? 

Mellen-Thomas Benedict is an artist who survived his last NDE in 1982. He was dead for over an hour and a half after dying from cancer. At the time of his death, his spirit floated out of his body and went into the light. Curious about the universe, he was apparently taken far into the remote depths of existence, and even beyond, into worlds beyond what we know. During his experience, he was able to learn a great deal of information concerning reincarnation.

As a result of his NDE, Benedict has contributed to new scientific discoveries. He has been closely involved in the mechanics of cellular communication and research dealing with the relationship of light to life called Quantum Biology. This research is providing new insights on how biological systems work. Benedict found living cells will respond very quickly to light stimulation resulting in, things like rapid healing. As a researcher, inventor and lecturer, he holds six U.S. patents.

Several weeks after Benedict was born, he may have had his first NDE when his bowels were ruptured. His body was tossed to one side as a corpse, yet surprisingly, he later revived. As soon as he learned to grasp crayons, he fed a compulsive urge to create symbolic black/white yin/yang circles from Eastern spiritual thought. He has no clear memory of why he drew those symbols.

Benedict spent early school years in a Catholic boarding school in Vermont, and was baptized in the Salvation Army religion as a youngster. He traveled extensively because of a military stepfather until the family finally settled.

By then, Benedict was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. He had retired from film and began operating a stained-glass studio. As his condition deteriorated, he devoted more time to his art. One morning, he awoke sensing he would die the next day, and he did. As the scenario began, Benedict recognized what was happening as it unfolded. The process was like deja-vu because he had read many books about the NDEs and felt connections from possible past experiences.

Go back to where you've always been

Keep doing what's right even when what's wrong continues to happen to you.  You can be a victor and not a victim. What does this mean? You aren't helpless. You're in charge of yourself.  There is nobody and no situation that can prevent you from moving forward if you make that choice.  Examine what you think you know and believe. Revise it. 

1) What hurts you so much inside that it drives you to feel you must hurt others to heal it?  All attack and criticism can be seen as a kind of defense to hide things.  What might you fear?  The illusion of superiority may make you feel bigger and better.  Yet, as time passes, you simply act worse, care less and less and look smaller and less significant to others.

2) Trust that if a person isn't friendly to you, then others will help fulfill your destiny. The 'right people' will come into your life so long as you detach from people who are discouraging or superficial.  Meaningful links will emerge. If you feel good about some people, listen to your soul. 

3) When you give up self-defeating beliefs or disadvantageous situations, life will improve. If you wish to alter your methods of perception and understanding, step away from your fallacies.

Just as you already have the dreams and goals in your heart, all you have to do is develop faith that you will help make these happen.  Our destiny is connected to other people we meet, or have known. Reach out to them.  What do they tell you about social constructions and mores?  What do they tell you about the accuracy of your observations and conclusions? Tell it like it is. Go back to where you've always been, retrieve that mindset to get on with it!

Witness what you hope to see

Ever been in a bind and not known what to do? Ever call out for assistance  aloud to things beyond you for an answer?

Recently, after an appointment, I entered my friend's borrowed car only to discover the steering wheel was stuck and this little red hand symbol flashed on the dash-board with a black image of a car inside it. Try as I did,I was unable to jostle and loosen the steering wheel side-to-side. I verified that the car was indeed locked "in park" and observed the parking break was in place. I locked and unlocked the car, got out, locked and unlocked the car again, circled the vehicle on foot, checked interior buttons and levers yet, saw nothing unusual I thought would cause trouble.

As it happened, I didn't find the instruction manuel or anything to explain my dilemma. Try as I did, the keys wouldn't fit in the keyhole to start the engine. Using my mobile, I phoned a good friend whom I thought would understand the issue. No luck. Rather than call roadside assistance for things I assumed would be minor, I chose instead to look around. Initially, I didn't see anyone I could ask my car question. I continued to rattle my brain for answers and tried a few new things.

Then, suddenly, a middle-aged Asian couple walked up over the hill toward me. They strolled at a normal pace. I approached them and mentioned my apparent dilemma. I described what I had tried and inquired if the man had had any similar experiences. He replied thoughtfully, "yes" and asked, "do you trust me?" Looking into his sparkling eyes, I replied, "why, certainly." I instinctively handed him my keys. His wife smiled and stood quietly beside me. I watched the man sit in the car,jiggle the steering wheel differently than I had and perform a few maneuvers which enabled him to start my engine. I was pleased. "Thanks so much!" I exclaimed, relieved.

As the couple walked down the road, I sat in the car and turned to find my sunglasses. Although the road was straight and the sidewalk was visible, the older couple who had helped me seemed to vanish. When I looked up, they were nowhere to be seen. Both people evoked a very peaceful feeling inside me. As I pulled out of my parking space and onto the road, I realized that helpful people are all around us but we rarely slow down or look in ways to enable us to see them.

One theory says that angels are spiritual beings who never lived as mortals on Earth. Other ideas, however, believe that loved ones who have passed on can become our guardian angels. Remind yourself that if you learn to stop fretting about situations which aren't going your way, you will experience the presence and assistance of angels. You're only a step away from understanding this larger reality. Move beyond the five senses you typically use to grasp the world around you. Who is it that decides what's possible? You do. You decide what to do and believe.  Witness what you hope for.  It's not what you think you know, but what you do that matters.