Embracing your endings is a challenge worth exploring.
Embracing your endings may sound like a bad idea at first.
After all, endings often feel uncomfortable. They can trigger grief, fear, or even a sense of failure. But what if you saw your endings not as something going wrong, but as necessary turning points? Every ending clears a path for something new—something we may not even be able to imagine yet.
The truth is, we can’t step fully into a new chapter while clinging tightly to the old. Endings invite reflection, healing, and transformation. They ask us to trust that change, even painful change, is fertile ground for growth.
Embrace Your Endings — 5 Stepping Stones
1. Honor What Was
Before rushing ahead, take time to acknowledge what you’re leaving behind. Celebrate the good, grieve the losses, and recognize the lessons. Rituals like writing a letter of gratitude or holding a small ceremony help you give yourself closure.
2. Let Go of the Story
Sometimes we stay stuck because we keep replaying the “what-ifs” and “should-haves.” Letting go doesn’t mean forgetting—it means loosening the grip on the story you’ve been telling yourself about why it ended. Give yourself permission to move forward without needing all the answers.
3. Create Space to Feel
Endings stir up emotions, and that’s natural. Instead of numbing out or distracting yourself, create room to feel what you need to feel. Journaling, therapy, or even a quiet walk in nature can help you process your emotions with compassion.
4. Reconnect to Your Values
When the familiar falls away, it’s a perfect time to ask: What really matters to me now? Reconnecting to your core values acts like a compass, guiding you toward beginnings that are more aligned with who you are becoming.
5. Stay Curious About What’s Next
Instead of demanding a clear plan right away, cultivate curiosity. Explore and stay open to unexpected opportunities. Curiosity keeps you moving forward without needing to have everything figured out.
Endings aren’t failures; they are thresholds. By facing them bravely and intentionally, we invite richer, more authentic beginnings into our lives.
Want more help?
Do you ever feel like change is coming at you too fast, or like it just arrives, uninvited, out of the blue?
I’ve recently been working with a client who was blindsided by the sudden passing of a long-time co-worker. It’s turned her work life upside down and has also shaken her on a deep and personal level because this co-worker was the same age and also a good friend.
It’s brought up all kinds of big questions, on top of grief, and new work demands. The stresses and questions are piling up, and she is feeling disoriented and anxious.
We’ve been working together on this for several weeks now. And today I shared a new time tool with her. I want to share it with you as well.
It’s titled How to Partner with Change and Aging. And to discover more about it right now, you can click here.
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