Day 227: You Are Higher on the Staircase
Do you ever feel like you're going around in circles?
I came across this quote from William Butler Yaets that talks about what that looks like as a life journey.
"Life is a journey up a spiral staircase; as we grow older we cover the ground we have covered before, only higher up; as we look down the winding stair below us we measure our progress by the number of places where we were but no longer are. The journey is both repetitious and progressive; we go both round and upward."
I love that because it takes the shame away that some people can feel about seeing a familiar pattern show up again.
Yates reminds us that life is anything but a straight line, and the lessons we don't learn the first time around will come back and revisit us until we do learn them.
When looked at as a spiral staircase we can see that not only are we sometimes going through a similar situation hopefully with a better outcome, but we bring so much more to it this time around because of who we have become since the last time we went through a similar situation.
There are many things in my life that thankfully I've learned and haven't had to encounter again.
But maybe somewhere on the journey in front of me there will be another level of that experience I will be asked to revisit.
I'm also aware there were patterns I kept replaying for decades before I finally let them go. Yes, I am that stubborn. Or possibly just clueless at the time.
I can see now that something was happening each time. I may not have been ready to make a different choice yet, but I was gathering information. I was learning what didn't feel good. I was starting to recognize the cost of staying the same.
Being up higher on the staircase allows us more of a bird's-eye view of life, and the distance gives us more perspective and compassion toward ourselves and others.
It also allows us to bear witness to the times we made progress with shorter periods of frustration or faster response times and fewer reactions with no thought process behind them.
If you've ever gotten out of one bad job, relationship, drama, just to find the cycle repeating itself in a slightly different form, you'll probably notice that you realized it quicker and got yourself out of it in a calmer, more empowered way.
Every time we go through something it strengthens us, even if we don't see it outwardly.
It gives us another tool to use, a deeper understanding, a better read on people and situations, puts us more in touch with our emotions that guide us.
Each time we go through the school of hard knocks, we become a better student and graduate out of the situation as a different person, who has more of a sense of who they truly are.
So if something familiar has come back around in your life, it doesn't have to mean you're back where you started.
Maybe it means you are higher on the staircase now. You can see more, know more, have more tools.
And this time, you may be able to choose differently sooner.
Today's Gentle Practice
Think about one pattern or situation that has come back around in your life.
Ask yourself:
How am I meeting this differently than I would have before?
You don't have to judge yourself for seeing something familiar again.
Just notice what has changed in you.
The perspective.
The tools.
The awareness.
The willingness to choose sooner.
Maybe you're not back where you started.
Maybe you're higher on the staircase.
With you,
Lynn
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