When You Know It's Time to Redefine

How does one put into words, that feeling of readiness to move on, to something new. The sense that it's time for change with a feeling so palpable, you can't ignore it. You can feel it like the heaviness of a southern still summer night. There's no mistaking that feeling, as it takes hold of your senses and pushes you to make a change; to redefine your life.

That's when you know you're ready for change and then the question becomes, when? What? How? Sometimes, the what and how only come once you've broken away from where you were. That's when you have a moment to breathe. Other times, you know before you break away. This girl knew it was time. There was no mistaking that feeling and need to end the chapter I had been living for so long. If I were to give that chapter a title, it would be 'survival.'

I'm a single mom who was working as a college professor at a state college for 15 years, focused on my son and making ends meet. Having a couple long-term relationships, the last of which almost took my soul, and trying to ensure, financially, I did it all on my own. While I worked full-time at one college I eventually got another gig at a college in Southwest Florida teaching a class or two. Add to that running my law office part-time as well as a social retail business and you might say my cup was full. In my defense, I didn't add the additional teaching gig and social retail biz until much later.

Now, comes the time when my son is a high school senior ready to graduate and I'm about to be an empty nester. Whoa! Talk about a shock to the system! I'd been living in survival mode for so long, it was automatic. If I worked, I could make all my bills and Gabe and I could have a great life traveling. That's what I told myself. Seemed to make sense, but it was just a cover, because I wasn't really living.

Yes, I took vacations. I traveled to Spain and Portugal, traveled the Caribbean, took so many road trips how could I not be living? What I didn't realize is, is that, I was actually just surviving. I was o.k. with it then, because if I was working I didn't have time to feel. I didn't have time to think about what happened and most of all I didn't have time to cry. If I continued in survival mode, I could keep everything buried and it would all be fine. In reality, I wasn't fine and it wasn't fine, I suffocating beneath the survival life I had created and was beyond ready to redefine myself and my life.

And so, I set out to retire and redefine my life in a way that would now give me the freedom to not only recreate myself but a life of abundance. In doing so, I promised myself, I would now live outside the lines being more present, and more aligned with the Universe and what my empathic soul needs. Hoping that in some way, that might help others to do the same.

And that my friend, is how It's Life Redefined was born.