Life Is Circular Not Linear

This week I am sharing a blog post I wrote for my friend, Meri Frischman, the founder of The ProAge Alliance.

After you read it respond in the comments and let me know your thoughts.

TRUTH: Life isn’t a straight line—it’s a circle.

Just like the seasons, our lives are a series of cycles that take us through growth, change, and renewal.

Think of it this way, winter is here and we’re all cozy and plump from the holidays. Then spring comes and we feel energized by longer, warmer days. The tan of summer fades into fall, but like all cycles, summer will come again!

I think you hear what I am saying.

Life is literally a seasonal smorgasbord. The problem is we don’t always appreciate the buffet, until it’s too late.

Honestly, I look back at my own life and see how I wished away so much of the good stuff by being too busy, irritated by people I loved, and just trying to get through the days. I hardly realized those were some of the happiest years when I was in them. I had all the people I loved with me, and for f*cks sake I would give anything to get back just a minute of it back.

As a culinary wellness coach, the founder of The Culinary Cure™ and Active Grandparenting™, I have some advice to share. After a devastating decade where I literally grieved the loss of parents, finances, pets, my health, almost lost my marriage and became an empty nester. I had to choose to reclaim my birthright of feeling excited for every day and reboot the messy, too long season, that almost took me down.

This, my friends, is your next season!

At 57, after that sh*t show decade, I started www.theculinarycure.com. I had no idea what I was doing, I hired someone to build a website, jumped into social media with vigor, much to the horror of my children, and just “did it.”

Honestly, I had no business being so bold and out there, but what really happened was far more transformative. It’s called the confidence cycle, and it’s literally the magic juice for inspiring your next, best, season.

This is how it worked for me. My life was a tsunami of personal sorrows. My habits were in the dumpster (and yes, I was already a wellness coach) which meant too much coffee, wine and carbohydrates and not enough water and avocados. I was in the perfect storm of an underactive thyroid, menopause and daily stress, which led to cortisol shooting through my adrenal system like heroin. Sleep was non-existent and disassociation was how I got through my days.

The rope was long, and then I was out of rope.

It was a thrive or die moment.

This is the part about confidence, I started with hydration. I did a deep dive on what habits could deliver the most impactful results for liking my life better and feeling joy again. So, I started with hydration. My sleep was still crap, but now I was hydrated, so I felt better and started going to the gym at 5am. Which led to going to bed earlier, feeling stronger, reduced stress, nutritious food choices, and feeling capable of handling my real life struggles.

The confidence cycle is when you start by doing something challenging (or something you just don’t want to do, or face), you muscle through, feel good you did that thing, gain confidence in your own abilities and are ready to address other, bigger challenges.

I started with hydration, got my confidence back, created www.theculinarycure.com to help other women do the same, and embraced an entirely new season in my life.

Honestly, the hardest part was just getting started.

As women we spend a good chunk of our lives being all things, to all people. Our parents, siblings, children, spouses, communities, jobs, employers and lastly, what’s left over, if anything, we give to ourselves.

Now is your time, just do it!

The universe has a special way of rewarding us for all that giving and doing… it’s called life over 50.

It’s literally “found” time after all those seasons. Time to double down on work left undone, find new inspiration and just do you. This time may include helping our parents leave the world they brought us into, and welcoming in the next generation. But most importantly, we want the physical health, mental bandwidth and emotional capacity to enjoy every freaking minute of this glorious season.

Hydration remains the magical elixir for adding life to your life. It’s the cornerstone of my coaching practice and I believe so strongly in it’s ability to profoundly influence every woman’s life that I give away a hydration training. You can access it here.

Right now is the perfect time to start taking that next right step for you. The 10 to 40 years ahead can be an entire lifetime. Just do it!

You can learn more about the ProAge Alliance for female brands and businesses here.

Stay Strong,
Kristen

P.S. Share this post with friends and family who could use the inspiration!