Rock bottom.
For many of us, this dark place is a terrifying trap door we spend our entire lives struggling desperately to sidestep. A house of horrors often first introduced to us through other people’s cautionary tales of failure, addiction and shame.
At rock bottom, despair and confusion reign supreme. And yet, as anyone who’s ever fallen from grace only to land themselves in this deep, dark well of the soul might argue— a quiet and nagging sense of liberation also exists there. When you quite literally have nothing left, isn’t it also true that you have nothing left to lose?
I think sometimes it’s easier to leap when you don’t have far to fall. That’s why for many of us, it often takes a crash landing into deep despair to even notice our discontent in the first place. We ignore Life’s subtle signs that we’re unhappy and unfulfilled because making any kind of big change feels impossible when there’s so much at stake. We wait in anxious anticipation until the comfortable, well-worn, rug upon which we’ve built our lives is pulled out from under us. Only if and when that happens do we give ourselves permission to try things differently. We might be dying on the inside, but we white knuckle our way through the pain, anyway.
Until the day we simply can’t hold on any longer.
The truth is, friends— our lives are always speaking to us, and how we respond matters. Today, I hope you catch the whisper: That subtle inkling that something just isn’t right. The nagging sense that “good enough” isn’t actually good enough. The hint of resentment that hits you like a wave when life forces you to turn your back on whatever it is that sparks light in your soul. And today, I hope you find the courage to answer these whispers; to do whatever it is you need to do before you’re forced to do it.
But if it’s too late for the whisper; if you’re already bruised and battered at the depths of your own rock bottom, by all means— nurse your wounds. But then? Take that leap.
You have nothing to lose, after all.
Except the opportunity to be transformed by your pain.
We do avoid hitting rock bottom. You are so right. And yet, as you pointed out, from there the only direction is up. Too many times it is necessary to get there so we can wake up. Which you expressed so well in your post. I love Enlight Bites!
And I love that you’re here, Colleen!