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As I write this, the World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a pandemic and India has declared its emergency by invoking the rarely used Section 2 of its Epidemic Diseases Act. Travel to and from India has been shut down, yet all of the insights gleaned from my time there are more alive than ever. I’ll share just a couple of those below.
I was in an all too familiar mode: the world and my life felt like a combination of being joyful, overwhelmed, optimistic, pessimistic, grateful and also unclear about how I could impact the people and causes I care about while maintaining my health, sense of vitality and equanimity. There were points of light and people who I believed in, doing the hard work to create positive change. It left me questioning how, if I already have so much on my plate, can I possibly live my values and make a dent in all of the things and all of the people I care about?
I joined a small delegation to travel with the American Jewish World Service for a journey of justice to Delhi and Calcutta, India. We visited with grassroots leaders and allowed ourselves the insights gleaned only from being proximate to those who are most vulnerable. This Repotting journey was informed by meeting with local game-changers committed to improving the lives of young girls and women by using various tactics to end forced child marriage. Perhaps the best way to describe what feels like a personal transformation is reflected in Praneeta’s statement:
I’m in an all too familiar mode: the world and my life feel complicated, joyful, overwhelming, depressing, among other feelings. There are points of light and people who I believe in, doing the hard work to create positive change. Where do I fit in? I already have so much on my plate, how can I do more?
One of the reasons I work exclusively with adults, midlife and better is because we are complicated beings and life is messy. My superpower is a genuine enthusiasm for aging and wisdom, and my ability to guide others to simplify and untangle all sorts of complications in order to have a personal and professional life of joy and impact. But when I am the one feeling like a tight ball of rubber bands, well, it’s hard to keep from feeling something might snap.
I’m in an all too familiar mode: the world and my life feel complicated, joyful, overwhelming, depressing, among other feelings. There are points of light and people who I believe in, doing the hard work to create positive change. Where do I fit in? I already have so much on my plate, how can I do more?
One of the reasons I work exclusively with adults, midlife and better is because we are complicated beings and life is messy. My superpower is a genuine enthusiasm for aging and wisdom, and my ability to guide others to simplify and untangle all sorts of complications in order to have a personal and professional life of joy and impact. But when I am the one feeling like a tight ball of rubber bands, well, it’s hard to keep from feeling something might snap.
I am joining a small delegation to travel with American Jewish World Service for a journey of justice to Delhi and Calcutta, India. We will be visiting with grassroots leaders and allow ourselves the insights gleaned only from being proximate to those who are most vulnerable.
If you’re searching for foundational transformation, The Five Essential Elements™ is a powerful place to start. It was created to help you lead your version of a life well-lived. But, if you’re looking for a different kind of transformation, one that can only come from Repotting, read an introduction below. Like any inspired gardener, we’ll sow spring seeds during the quiet days of February and will share new growth and insights by expanding on Repotting in March. I hope to share personal insights about my own Repotting journey in India.
Repotting is seeking out new soil that nourishes your life so that you can live more dynamically, more courageously, and on purpose. The goal is to step away from your routine with intention so you can have a better view of your normal habits, relationships and ways of thinking and see if they are really serving you.
It prunes away the limits of the familiar and creates room for new growth. We can become so root – bound by routine, expectations, relationships and self – imposed obligations (SIOs) that we lose sight of investing in our own growth and development.
Most of us spend our days in what Søren Kierkegaard believed to be our greatest source of unhappiness – a refusal to recognize that “busy is a decision”, and that presence is infinitely more rewarding than productivity.
I frequently worry that being “productive” is the surest way to lull ourselves into a trance of passivity and busyness, the greatest distraction from living, as we coast through our lives day after day. We show up for our obligations but are absent from our selves, mistaking the doing for the being.
When you clear things out, you make room for what matters. You create “intentional space” for your passion and purpose. If you don’t control what fills that space, something or someone else will —maybe something more draining and stressful than what you’ve cleared out.
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to repotting. Repotting can be taking your life in a new direction for the long term. It can also be a smaller scale, simply giving you a briefer time to refresh yourself and live in a different way and get your roots healthy. It can be traveling around the world or taking a class. Anything that stretches you gets you out of your routine and makes you see yourself and the world in a new way is repotting.
Explore the Seven Lifestyle Levers™️ that ancient wisdom and cutting-edge science that proves the moniker Lifestyle IS Medicine. Assess your current state of integrating body, mind, and spirit in ways that optimize your wisdom at every stage and any age while aligning your health span and lifespan.
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