In 2012, I was working in one of the best companies in my country. I was pretty young at the time and everything was going well, apparently well. Good job, good health, good relationships, and good salary. In terms of “social stability”, I was doing fine, but there was a huge but… I didn’t like my job. I didn’t have enough time to spend with my family and friends. I could buy them nice presents but I couldn’t be there on special occasions. So, every day the idea of making a change was becoming stronger and stronger: I have to do something, I have to do something! Yet, I was so scared that I made myself think this way: Karla, you have a good job. If you hold on to it, you will have a better position and more money, and then you will have savings, and you will travel. Hold on, hold on.
The turning point
I was like this for a year! Struggling 5 days a week until I got sick, an injury in my hand, elbow, and shoulder that ended in a surgery to save my hand and took me almost a year to recover. After that year trying to catch up with everything, I got fired.
So, without a job, fragile health and a lot of fear, I decided that it was now or never, to change something. Of course, it happened after 2 or 3 days of feeling sorry for myself and endless wondering: how did I get to this point? And the answer was clear: because I didn’t listen to my inner voice, I was neglecting myself.
Starting to hear my inner voice
After being fired, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I needed a change. So I joined a theatre course, which is something I had always loved. And boom! I found it! I remember when I was a teenager I wanted to pursue arts because I felt passionate about it, and after 12 years I was now able to reconnect with that feeling. Moreover, an idea came to me: I have a Business Bachelor degree and I used to work in service companies, so I thought I could use my knowledge in business to work in a company related to arts. At the beginning I was so full of doubts, asking myself constantly if I was doing the right thing. Why would it work for me? Is this really for me? What if I miss something better? What if I’m too old to do this? And what if I fail? These questions and judgements kept coming to my mind.
I applied for several jobs without having any experience in the field. I was just asking for an opportunity to show that I could do the job. So it was like an act of faith in myself and my abilities. After a while, I got an offer! Thanks to this opportunity I became a theatre producer and had a chance to produce even international festivals. What did I learn? A lot! Too many things to describe in an article, but mostly I learned to trust, to let go all the fears, to believe in myself, to reconnect with myself, to listen to myself, my intuition, that voice that was telling me for a long time that I needed a change.
Trust the process
In this process, I found meditation. To be able to connect to myself was a major game changer. Meditation helped me understand my mind better, it helped me understand that I was in a process, that I could do whatever I wanted. It helped me let go so many expectations about what I should do and be, expectations about the future. It helped me feel more grounded in the present moment, to trust my process.
So, how can we make a turning point in life and deal with changes? By reconnecting with ourselves, meditating even 5 minutes twice a day, starting to have good practices that help us let go all those expectations and make us free, confident about our potential, living the present moment and enjoying the process. If you want to know more about how to meditate, click here.