Being Under Construction

As I wake to the jackhammer most mornings now I couldn’t help but think about construction.. .constructing something new out of something older, a bit more than a reno but not quite as much as a total knockdown – maybe it’s on my mind as I’m missing The Block now its finished for 2018 or maybe it’s my subconscious at work thinking about my recent significant decade birthday!

Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain…

As I wake to the jackhammer most mornings now I couldn’t help but think about building.. .constructing something new out of something older, a bit more than a reno but not quite as much as a total knockdown – maybe it’s on my mind as I’m missing The Block now its finished for 2018 or maybe it’s my subconscious at work thinking about my recent significant decade birthday!

Just take a look around your own suburb and our beautiful city, Sydney. We are surrounded by scaffolding, cranes, worksites, underground tunnels and motorways, light rail, fluro vests and hard hats and very loud talkback or music along with the jackhammering!

What’s the reason for this construction work? Perhaps it our rapidly growing population, upwardly economically mobile families, market pressure and resale value of property, wanting to keep up with the Jones…whatever the drivers are there’s huge energy put into planning, project management, budgets, functionality and aesthetics.

Many of us are seduced by ‘must have the latest and greatest’ and 5 star contemporary interior housing designs as the norm! How exhausted are you just thinking about it? How exhausted are you with your family, friends and workplace? So how do we show up each day in the noise and mayhem? Are we thriving? What really matters in life? Do we do too much? Are we feeling valued? When, where and how are you experiencing joy?

You know the word ‘construction” can be a noun or a verb, however I’m thinking of it as deliberate action, something we have a vision for and something we input into…setting up, raising, creating, making, analysing, interpreting, growing.

A bit like our life journey really… I often think we are a work in progress with choices, I can “become” or “stay” the same. When I look back my greatest learnings often came when I was unaware that I was learning and changing. Noticing the ‘fog beginning to lift’, becoming more than I was. Is this the same for you?

Being “older and wiser” is a saying we are pretty familiar with and I do wish (hindsight is a pain in the proverbial!) that I had a few more self reflective and self awareness skills and techniques when I was a young teacher and young mum! But hey.. that’s the past!

We are living in an age where there is a ton of literature and research at our fingertips (and yes, that includes FB, Insta, Twitter) for ‘me’ time, self help, mindfulness, healthy lifestyle, being happy, sex goddess status, motivation, inspiration, wellbeing, finding the awesome you etc, etc, etc. We are into construction for mind, body and soul.

People are seekers, builders and explorers with purpose. Not perfectionists. Thriving matters.

What have I learnt to do to deepen my awareness of self and how I affect others? I’ve learnt to laugh at myself and often! (of course a little dancing helps too)

I use a few questions to help me think things through, ‘write them down and sit/walk with’ for a while…

• Do I know and value my strengths? Are my behaviours matching these?

• What keeps popping into my thinking that I can’t shift? Why?

• What is driving these thoughts? Is it real? What is hurting?

• What do I have control over to alter/change?

• How vulnerable am I willing to be whilst ‘becoming’ more?

• What will I keep and what do I let go off?

• What do others notice about me and how genuine are they when I ask them for their feedback?

Our lives are not set in stone.

Lives, like flowers, continue to unfold.

We have options and we have choices all along the way. Yes, we have been influenced by our past and yes we do have the ability to construct our present and our future. As we accept who we are, we have the possibility of becoming someone else. That is the paradox of life and living.

When I let life happen, I feel better. When I participate in the happening of my life, I soar!

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