While visiting a winery with some college friends last weekend, one friend asked for 3 words representing where I’m currently at in life. 

My response? Flowing, growing, and glowing. This year has been a whirlwind of emotions, experiences, and events. And I’m grateful for it all. One of my favorite sayings is: rather than letting life happen to you, let it happen for you.

When life turns you towards a new direction, learn how to flow with the current. 

So often, we plan how our life will look. When we’ll get married, when we’ll get that dream house, when we’ll land the dream job. But sometimes life has other ideas in mind. 

I used to plan experiences to a T. However, these plans would come with attachments. And with those attachments, expectations. This in turn led to a lot of disappointment when things didn’t go as planned. 

When you are in a flexible state in the flow, you allow yourself to enjoy what’s being offered or taught in the present moment, rather than focusing on expectations. Rather than consistently fighting against what’s going on around you, how can you surrender and go with the flow?

Embrace the growth these tides offer. 

There’s a reason why humans make mistakes. They’re how we learn best. They’re how we understand which habits, actions, and thoughts no longer serve us. They let us recognize where we need to grow. 

Life will continue throwing things at you, until you have learned the lesson that’s attached to that story. As humans, we don’t like conflict. We avoid it as much as possible. But during times of turmoil, do you sit and ask why something’s happening to you, or do you soften and find what lessons are meant to be learned?

When we drop our ego and face our challenges head on, we can take the lessons we need from that turmoil, and leave the rest. Learn to have forgiveness for yourself, appreciate your growth, and use that to move forward. 

As you swim beyond the waves, acknowledge how you start to glow from within.

Rather than being defined by your mistakes or times of turmoil, your resilience to moving on and embracing the abundance ahead of you carries greater weight. Appreciate the lessons learned from those turbulent times. 

It’s time to forgive who you were in the past. Acknowledge that version of yourself did whatever was needed to get through. Now embrace the person who you are becoming, and let your inner light shine bright.