Feeling Lost Is Part Of The Path You Must Travel
Sometimes losing yourself is the only way to discover who you are
Photo by George Shervashidze on Pexels
No one warned you that it would happen. You wake up one morning, and everything around you stays exactly the same. Except, now it looks and feels strange because something had gone amiss. You lose yourself. You lose your identity in that familiar space. The feeling of connectedness, the sense that you are part of your surrounding, is gone.
You’re trapped inside an invisible shell looking out. Time blurred. Heavy fog clouds your mind and interferes with your ability to think. The life-giving sun sends a surge of warmth but fails to melt your icy heart. Day by day, this horrid feeling takes over your tender soul and turns you into the ghost of a person you are.
Some days you swear you remember that wildflowers once blossomed in tranquil light where the hollow spaces now exist. That encounter no longer feels familiar. You tried to push through, to get to the other side, but there is no other side. All you do is float, hanging on to the pieces of wreckage around you.
There is no telling if you would survive the wreckage. Each breath demands effort. You don’t know if you will gain the strength to rise again, but you must keep going. Immerse in the bottomless pit and drown in it. There is nothing to feel but numbness for another minute, another hour, another day.
Perhaps it’s easier not to care. You want to escape reality and run from a world you no longer recognize, a world that is spiraling downward. There are no solutions. There is no detailed road map. From here onwards, there are only detachments from situations and people that no longer serve you. Those that are no longer a part of where you’re heading.
What is evident outside does not come close to what is happening inside. Despite what you think, you don’t need to run because you can’t. You ride the wave. Feeling lost is part of the path. As you navigate the open ocean, let the rhythm of the rolling waves move you.
Surrender and allow it to crush you if necessary so that when the waves calm down, you’ll discover a different version of yourself — a higher version. Through the broken pieces, you retrace each step no matter how difficult it gets.
You don’t need to know how, why, or where. Instead, you lean into the unknown and make peace with it. When life blindsides you and swerves your compass off course, you remain silent, breathe and allow it to lead.
Words are inadequate for explaining what’s going on in your mind and heart at this point. Open yourself to what is about to unfold and let go of the need to know every detail. Trust that somewhere through the chaos and confusion, every piece shall fall into place.
Life has a funny way of working out beyond what you can see. From here, you transition and rebirth. Yes, you’re still on your journey. It won’t make sense now, but you keep moving forward one step, one breath at a time. As waves always travel towards the shoreline, you will eventually find your ground.
The storm that turns day into night shall cease. A new day will undoubtedly dawn, so hang on. In the process, the person that emerges from the wreckage is never the same person who went in. Because it isn’t until you lose yourself that you begin to understand who you are.
There is no easy way to go through this. At some point, we all lose our way. We could blame something or someone, but the path is ours to walk alone. Brace yourself for the journey ahead. Remember that you are braver and stronger than you think. Share your experience below. You might just touch someone’s life.
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| FROM THE ARCHIVES |
Just like I was, many people choose to remain a victim. We pretend as if we have no control over the situations in our lives. We go about our day as if some evil fairy had waved her magic wand and cursed everything on our path.
When you truly love someone, you seldom just want to walk out, even if the red flags are obvious. The core motivation for most people deep down is knowing that their partner still loves them. The real issue is they have problems expressing it.
We’re so diligent in setting goals and making plans, not realizing that six months down the road, what we want may no longer be relevant.
Regardless of whether you do or not, time continues to flow forward. Since it’s moving fast, whatever job you’re dreading will be over within a moment. You’ll reach the end of the week, a month, or a year sooner than you think. Hopefully, you don’t find yourself wishing you could have started sooner at the end.
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Thank you, Esther. This is a comforting piece. I think I'll read it again later.
This is so true, my friend. I opened up myself to the universe first and it guided me towards people like you. Thank you for existing. I knew I wasn't for anyone. Hence, I met the real gems in my life.