As we move into this New Year, let’s keep some things in perspective particularly as we’re thinking about change and transformation for the next year, or even reflecting on our experiences of the previous year.

I wrote about this last year, but it’s such a good reminder ….

Because what I know to be true is that growth requires friction (…likely what unfolded during this past year for you).

… It requires tension points and challenges.

… It requires moving out of our comfort zones into the unknown.

… It requires us to become uncomfortable, to face our fears, and to live right on the edge of our window of tolerance.

Yet our minds can carry a fantasy that somehow we can grow without this. It searches for the easy way out. It dreams of the day that life will be filled with more support and comfort – hence New Year’s resolutions.

What our minds don’t realize is that this is not only a fantasy, but unattainable. Without getting too technical (… stay with me as I know this is not always our strong suit), the world of quantum physics tells us that everything in existence has inherent within it both a positive and negative charge to equal degree.

We can’t separate the two – Nothing exists without these two polarities.

And we never have a challenge without support or a crisis without a hidden blessing.

Ultimately, integration isn’t about focusing on the positive, but rather seeing each event as a balanced experience designed to help us stay at the edge of our window of tolerance for maximum growth.

So as you reflect on the previous year and think about what you’d like to experience in the next year, consider these deeper questions:

  • Why did what happened in [year], happen FOR me?
  • What part of me was stuck?
  • What part of me was attached to fantasies about who I thought I was or how I thought my life should be?
  • What part of me needed a big dose of friction to get me uncomfortable so that I could evolve to the next level of my being?
  • What blessings emerged?
  • What support came in to help?
  • For every challenge, what was the gift? For every pain, what was the growth?

The more we have the courage to look at the previous year for the truth of what it was – an experience of necessary friction containing an equal amount of negative and positive charge designed to help us grow – the more we’ll see that we did not fall into darkness, but rather we were enveloped in light.

That perhaps what we want to unfold in 2023, already has perfection and order in it …

That experience of dysregulation will dissipate to one of regulation and governance ..

And that the stage is set for you, to have a year of vitality, creativity, and synchronicity of the blessings that have and will continue to emerge right alongside the challenges.

Much love on the journey,

Lisa Dion