August 2013
Welcome --
Let's consider the popular buzz phrase: the "new normal".
It usually indicates a different pattern /way of being that has become the status quo -- the beginning of an era, movement, or behavior.
I'd like to take it back a few steps, though, change one letter, and look at what I call the now normal. I use it to describe the immediate fallout from a pattern interruption -- a life changing event that didn't exist a short time ago. It can be anything from mundane to catastrophic. It just indicates a marked change.
The now normal is temporary -- then again, isn't everything? ultimately? The now normal
reminds us that whatever we're undergoing, it isn't forever, it's just for now. So often we get carried away by the fearful thought of what if this is the new normal? It isn't -- it's us the now normal.
Recently, I was talking with a woman in the beginning throes of menopause -- hot flashes, mood swings, erratic cycles, fuzzy thinking. She immediately equated these sensations with the "new normal" -- "This is how it's going to be from here on in!", which stirred up understandable feelings of fear and helplessness. I reminded her that these aren't forever, they're just for now.
As ever, the practice?
Stop
Breathe
Repeat: "Just for now, not the new...."
Owning the now normal gives us a "twofer". It keeps us in the present, to navigate these changes, and allows us to get used to the shifts they are creating in our lives. There's one more bonus to cultivating the now normal --
as time passes, if/when it becomes the "new normal", we're already well versed in how to respond.
Sounds like a win /win to me.
