Everyone is Relocating

As a life coach, I’ve come to notice that all of my clients, in fact pretty much everyone in my life, is in the midst of some kind of relocation. Why do some glide through while others fall apart? I’ve noticed that those who relocate with ease do so because of how they choose to approach the transition.

I’ve had clients transition from:

• Full health to a cancer diagnosis


• Employment to unemployment


• Pregnancy to miscarriage


• Marriage to divorce


• Parenthood to empty nesting


• Retirement to a new career


• One state to another, or one country to another

Those that go through these challenging experiences successfully utilize all, or some of these five key concepts:


1) Present moment awareness


Periodically stopping to focus on the breath, or really noticing your surroundings, keeps you rooted in the here and now and mitigates anxiety. A client between jobs took up yoga in order to stay grounded and present.


2) Gratitude


Your energy is immediately lifted when you take time to appreciate all the good in your life, or take time to send gratitude to others. A client experiencing a divorce made it a habit to send one card a day to a friend or loved one, saying that she cared.

3) Mantras or affirmations


Taming the mind is critical during transition, as fear likes to creep in. “I’m led to the perfect people and places,” is one mantra a relocation client used.


4) Supreme self-care


Often the first thing to go during a big life change is your regular self-care routine. A client experiencing cancer amped up her self-care dramatically before chemotherapy began and has put herself first in the midst of the treatment.


5) Allow grieving


Transitions are like a death. You are saying goodbye to one way of life or being, and that can be incredible painful. Even if those around you do not recognize that you are grieving, it’s important to process the feelings. One client went on a retreat after a miscarriage, just to spend time grieving.


Prior to my relocation last year, I gave myself the gift of attending a solo retreat – just me and one practitioner. Though it felt decadent at the time to go away by myself right before a major move, it proved to be the very best thing I could have done. During the retreat, I refueled and replenished. As a result, I found that I had a storehouse of energy to face the boxes, address changes, closing documents, etc. I was also able to fully process my emotions around the move with the help of another coach.

If you know that a big life change is on your horizon, whether it’s a geographic relocation or a life transition, the five concepts above can help. And if you’d like help to create a personalized plan for mindfully moving through your upcoming transition, I'd love to support you.