When life moves fast

5 journal prompts to navigate change

Hi friend, 

I feel like the Ferris Bueller quote about life moving pretty fast is a pretty accurate description of my life lately. Based on the conversations I’ve been having with clients and friends, it feels like I’m not alone. Does it feel like you’ve entered into a transformative time-warp, too?

To honor the collective energy of the times, I’ve provided 5 journal prompts below to help us navigate one of life’s inevitabilities: 

Change. 

As I’m sitting here, it is literally raining leaves outside my window. The environment is changing right in front of my eyes. 

If you haven’t experienced a New England fall, let me tell you that it happens very fast. One minute the tops of the trees are abundantly red and yellow and orange, the next minute the only thing you can see for miles is brown, brown, and more brown. Ferris was right. Blink and you might miss it. 

last week on a morning walk

There are times in our lives where time seems to speed up. Times of great transformation and immense change. Times where all you can do is put your hands up in the sky and enjoy the ride as the rollercoaster whips you around and around. 

If you’ve been receiving these letters from me for a while, you’ll know that I am in the midst of such a time. Below is a little update for those new here. 

In the last 4 months my husband and I have: 

• Decided to leave Vancouver/Austin city life behind and move to rural New England 

• Moved in with my parents while we looked for a place of our own 

• Found a place and put in an offer that was, to our surprise, accepted. So I guess we’re homeowners now? (something that felt impossible in the cities we’ve lived in over the last 10 years). 

• Become the couple that spends their weekends going to Home Depot to look at (re: argue about) different flooring and wall color options. 

All this rapid change might have once left me feeling off-kilter and disoriented. The amount of logistics and paperwork and legalese we’ve had to navigate over the last several months is enough to make anyone’s head spin. 

And yet…I feel grounded. I feel balanced. I feel aligned. I feel in flow. I feel creative. 

Well, MOST of the time. There’s been breakdowns and breakthroughs, moments of overwhelm and frustration. 

But even in the difficult moments, it’s felt easeful; like the last pieces of a really hard puzzle that we’ve been working on for years finally falling into place. 

I chalk this up to good ol’ trust and surrender. I’ve learned to lean into trust over the last several years when things didn’t feel easy or easeful. Trusting the messages from the body, and surrendering to them fully and wholeheartedly, even when the plan isn’t perfectly laid out in front of me. Trusting in the divine timing of it all. You can read more about these messages in a previous letter, We’re moving to the Country. 

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”

-Alan Watts

I know for some this might sound “woo woo,” while others are gently nodding their heads in recognition. 

Either way, it’s important to reflect on our relationship to change every once and a while. Where are we white-knuckling our way through life when we’d be better off just joining the dance? Where is there resistance to change? Where is there longing and desire to change? Where have we been using blunt force and willpower to change where we could be using more self-compassion and love instead? Below I’ve come up with some journal prompts to support you in reflecting on your relationship to change. 

1. Describe the biggest life change you’ve experienced. How did it shape who you are today? What lessons did you learn from that experience?

2. What advice would you give to someone struggling to cope with a major life change? Have you been able to heed this advice when you’re moving through change? Why or why not?

3. When faced with unknown or unexpected changes, do you tend to resist or embrace them? How does your body react in these moments? 

4. Are there areas of your life you’re longing to change? What would it mean about you as a person if these things never changed? How might offering yourself more self-compassion and love support your ability to see these changes into fruition?

5. Reflect on the idea that nothing in life is permanent. How does this make you feel? If you embodied this idea, how might you approach your life and the decisions you make differently?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments section. Which question made you stop and reflect? How are you navigating life’s changes this season? Where are you resisting change?

I’ll meet you there,

The Part Dancing with Change

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