When You Know, You Know

Awareness and listening in to intuition have become my jam.  I have spent the last few years honing these skills both in my personal life and with coaching my clients.  When I’m coaching, this is easy.  My awareness and intuition guide me in leading clients in breath work and meditation.  When we start breathing for the day, I often have no idea where it will lead, I just listen in and go.  And awareness and intuition guide me to listen in to my clients, make connections, and ask questions that are unplanned and seemingly come from nowhere.  This works well and is like a beautiful dance.

However, as with anything else, when it comes to my personal life, using my awareness and following my intuition can be a bit trickier.  This is mostly because there are other people in my immediate family living their own journeys, and sometimes their awareness and intuition doesn’t align with mine. 

Last December my husband and I made the decision to stay more permanently in Greenville, SC, the place we had been living for 5 years.  We originally moved there for my husband to start a company with his brother and, in doing so, had to leave the beach in North Carolina, a place we absolutely loved and had never planned on leaving.  Our plan was always to make Greenville a “short term” stop and to leave as soon as we could.  What we couldn’t have predicted in our move is that educationally it would be a great place for our kids and would bring me a new relationship with myself and new career. 

Which leads back to last December.  My son was just about to graduate from high school and my daughter was in 8th grade.  Being in the middle of the pandemic, my husband and I decided that staying in Greenville through high school for our daughter (5 1/2 more years) would be the wise, responsible thing to do.  Plus, his company was still technically there, albeit remote, and I had an incredible business.  However, every time I thought of staying for 5 1/2 more years I felt like I wanted to crawl out of my skin.  

Things were just not sitting right with me.  At the time, my husband was remote, but we didn’t know if he would remain that way and I was busier than ever with my coaching business in Greenville.  My daughter was in 7th grade and floundering because she was a middle school girl in the middle of a pandemic and my son was about to graduate from high school and go to college in North Carolina, the state we came from.

I know myself well enough to know that the “little side comments” I make are always clues to the bigger things going on inside me.  I kept catching myself making comments about how I was going to be paying out of state tuition to a state I would rather be living in.  I kept catching myself having dreadful thoughts about having to stay in South Carolina.  And I kept tearing up every time I saw posts from friends at the beach.  My intuition knew that I wanted to leave…but nothing in my life was lining up for that to happen.

Fast forward a few months and a lot of soul searching later.  My husband and I were having a conversation about why when we had a great house and great jobs and great schools and ALL THE THINGS we were still struggling emotionally.  And I knew, because my intuition had been telling me for a while, but I had no idea if my husband’s intuition was on the same page.  So in having this conversation he said, “Why don’t we live back at the beach?  It’s where we really want to be.”  And I laughed.  Because I had been waiting, for months and honestly for years, for him to say this, for us to be on the same page.

And that’s how it all started.  The whirlwind in which we sold our house, moved our son to college, found a new house to rent at the beach, and moved our daughter back to the school where she started kindergarten.  My husband’s company has decided to be remote permanently, so he works from home where he can surf or walk the beach before his work day begins.  My daughter is enjoying her return to her previous school and popping out of her room more to spend time with us.  My son is creating his new life at college. And I am spending a lot of time walking the beach or riding my bike, catching up with friends, and am about to open my new office and practice in Wilmington, NC, while still seeing my Greenville and national clients remotely.

I don’t regret the last 6 years.  Greenville brought each of us more growth than many people have in decades, beautiful friendships, amazing experiences, and new paths in life.  And even though we literally live in paradise, life is still not perfect, it never will be.  There are still things we are all working through, as always, but our souls are more at ease. 

My intuition never lies to me and listening in and following it always leads to more joy and peace in my life…sometimes it just takes some time.