Springtime Books
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Contact Us
    • Our Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Services and Fees
    • Publishing Programmes
    • Selected Services
  • Springtime Titles
    • Expat Bookshop
    • Springtime Direct
    • Expat Life >
      • The Newcomer's Dictionary
      • Badass Abroad
      • #Living the Dream
      • This Messy Mobile Life
      • ANZC
      • Life After My Saucepans
      • What About Your Saucepans?
      • Turkey Street
      • Perking the Pansies
      • Living Elsewhere
      • Drinking Camel's Milk in the Yurt
      • Passage to Persia
      • An Inconvenient Posting
    • Memoir >
      • Badass Abroad
      • #LivingTheDream
      • Life After My Saucepans
      • What about your saucepans?
      • Do You Still Have Cleavage With Just One Breast?
      • The Soul Millionaire
      • Turkey Street
      • Passage of the Stork
      • Drinking Camel's Milk in the Yurt
      • Perking the Pansies
      • Passage to Persia
      • An Inconvenient Posting
    • Moving >
      • The Newcomer's Dictionary
      • Vida en Movimiento
      • #LivingTheDream
      • This Messy Mobile Life
      • Living Elsewhere
      • The Art of Transition
      • Life in Motion
      • Going Local in Gran Canaria
      • Unpack
      • Should I Stay or Should I Go?
      • Finding Your Feet in Chicago
      • Deconstructing Brazil
      • Laptop Entrepreneur
      • @Home in Dubai
    • Fiction >
      • The Legend of the Dancing Baobab Tree
      • Boudica's Daughters
      • A Family Just Like Mine
      • Bernard the Wombat
      • From Barcelona
    • Health & Wellbeing >
      • Méthode Adamski
      • De Regreso a un Futuro Para a Humanidad
      • Retour Vers un Avenir pour L'Humanité
      • #LivingTheDream
      • How to stand Up to Sexism
      • The Art of Transition
      • Vida en Movimiento
      • Life in Motion
      • This Messy Mobile Life
      • In Search of the Best Swedish Chokladbollar
      • Unpack
      • Benjamin's Bedtime Journey
      • Tracce di BioGeometria​
      • Do You Still Have Cleavage with Just One Breast?
    • Wealth >
      • Whose Career - Yours, Mine or Ours?
      • The Millennial Money Masterplan
      • Here We Are
      • The Flight of the Soul Millionaire
      • The Soul Millionaire
      • Seasons of Wealth
      • Secrets of a Financial Adviser
      • Laptop Entrepreneur
      • Retire to the Life You Love
      • Now It's Clear The Career You Own
    • Travel >
      • Travels Through Asia
      • The Twelve Days of Christmas Safari
      • Jump Down Under
      • Italy, a Romantic Journey
      • Postcards from the Ege
      • Going Local in Gran Canaria
      • Deconstructing Brazil
    • Children and Young Adults >
      • The Legend of the Dancing Baobab Tree
      • The Twelve Days of Christmas Safari
      • Hanna and the Flying Carpet
      • Boudica's Daughters
      • A Family Just Like Mine
      • Bernard the Wombat
      • Benjamin's Bedtime Journey
      • Hanna Och Den Flygande Mattan
    • Humour >
      • Living Elsewhere
      • Life After My Saucepans
      • What About Your Saucepans?
      • Turkey Street
      • Perking the Pansies
    • Faith >
      • The Art of Transition
      • Vida en Movimiento
      • Life in Motion
    • Music >
      • Ar Lan y Môr​
    • Foreign Language Books >
      • El Prologo
      • Der Prolog
      • Méthode Adamski
      • De Regreso a un Futuro Para a Humanidad
      • Retour Vers un Avenir pour L'Humanité
      • Vida En Movimento
      • Hanna Och Den Flygande Mattan
      • Tracce di BioGeometria
  • For Writers
    • Jo Parfitt, Mentor
    • Paddy Hartnett, Proofreader
    • author2author
    • Writing Retreats
    • Free Writers' Resources
  • News

Springtime
​News

Decisions, Decisions by Madeleine Lenagh

1/5/2015

Comments

 
When it’s hard to choose

Early this April, I attended a large, full-day symposium for women who are looking for ways to bring new meaning into their lives. As a coach, I held one-on-one sessions throughout the day with different participants. What really struck me about most of the women I talked to was that they are all faced with large, life-influencing choices and are have difficulty deciding.

“Do I stay in my comfortable job or do I quit and start my own business? Do I enter relationship therapy with my partner or do I walk away from the relationship? Do I burn all my bridges behind me? Do I do it now? Or next year if things haven’t gotten any better?”

There isn’t just one simple answer here for everyone. It’s a lot more complex than just saying, “Go for it!”. Following the path your soul is calling you to follow means you will sometimes stand on crossroads, unable to decide. Here are a few tips to help you understand how to proceed.

Take your time

A forced decision will always be made with your rational mind. Following the way of your heart requires time to let things unfold. You will need to listen to all the little Yes, but! voices inside and tell them that you do take them seriously but you will decide for yourself.

If all you feel is confusion, accept the confusion, be patient with it, and wait until it ebbs away. There will be a moment the confusion transforms into deep certainty. That is the moment to come into action.

Pay attention to your dreams

Your soul speaks to you through your subconscious. Your subconscious unfolds itself to you in your dreams. Not through rational stories but through associative images, strange happenings, and archetypes.  

If you do not keep a dream journal, this is a good time to start. Write down your dream as soon as you wake up. Write it out with as much detail as you can remember: colors, sounds, images. Write in the present tense, as if you are experiencing it again. Do not try to analyze the dream. And never, never consult a book or another person about what the dream means. Every individual has his or her own dream language, mainly built up out of associations. In my book, Passage of the Stork, my childhood dreams are frequented by a witch, a well-known archetype. But it took me years to understand the true meaning of the witch in my life.

Invite the dream into your waking day. Hold conversations with personages from the dream. Take a walk with an image from the dream. Ignore the narrative and concentrate on the separate images. Note down associations.

Unfortunately, the more unpleasant the dream, the more important it is. Spend time with the ones you want to forget. They probably are reminding you of something you don’t want to see – a shadow side of yourself? A blind spot? A hidden desire? 

Talk to a tree

When you talk to people about your dilemmas, they will react from their own projections. The world of nature is a much more honest and patient listener. Find a spot where you won’t be disturbed by other people. Walk around, aimlessly, simply taking in your surroundings. If you see a spot or an object (a tree, a rock, an animal) that suddenly catches your attention, stop and sit down with it. Talk to it, out loud. Introduce yourself and say why it caught your attention, what you notice about it. Then tell it about your dilemma, the choices you need to make. Explain, be honest. When you’ve said everything that needs to be said, fall silent and listen. Wait patiently for the answer. It may be that something happens. You may hear a small silent inner voice. Be open to anything that happens. When you are finished, thank the object or the spot and give it a present – a pretty stone, a flower, something you found along the way.

Important decisions, decisions about the path your life is taking, call for patience, inner silence, and the courage to face your own shadows. Whatever method you use, keep this in mind. I wish you wisdom and strength!
Madeleine Lenagh

About Madeleine

Madeleine Lenagh was born in the United States and grew up in Westport, Connecticut. She moved to the Netherlands in 1970. Madeleine is a trained counselor  and body-worker. Additional training in Systemic Ritual®, mindfulness, and Voice Dialogue followed. After a long career in urban planning and project management, she took early retirement and opened a practice for life coaching and counseling. She works with individual clients and organizes workshops, helping people make difficult choices, process grief and loss, learn to take care of themselves, and live their lives in accordance with their soul’s longing. She shares her passion for nature with others through her writing, art and photography, and shamanic practices.
Picture

Read Madeleine's life story, Passage of the Stork here.


Join Madeleine on

Website | About the Book on Facebook | About Madeleine on Facebook | Linkedin | Twitter | Google | SmugMug
Comments
    Picture
    Subscribe to our newsletter to get all the latest releases, news and views from Springtime Books
    Sign Up

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

Springtime Books

Bringing your book to life
As an Amazon Associate, we earn a commission from qualifying purchases. This does not affect the price you pay or your consumer rights.

Website by author2author | © Springtime Books 2023 All Rights Reserved
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Contact Us
    • Our Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Services and Fees
    • Publishing Programmes
    • Selected Services
  • Springtime Titles
    • Expat Bookshop
    • Springtime Direct
    • Expat Life >
      • The Newcomer's Dictionary
      • Badass Abroad
      • #Living the Dream
      • This Messy Mobile Life
      • ANZC
      • Life After My Saucepans
      • What About Your Saucepans?
      • Turkey Street
      • Perking the Pansies
      • Living Elsewhere
      • Drinking Camel's Milk in the Yurt
      • Passage to Persia
      • An Inconvenient Posting
    • Memoir >
      • Badass Abroad
      • #LivingTheDream
      • Life After My Saucepans
      • What about your saucepans?
      • Do You Still Have Cleavage With Just One Breast?
      • The Soul Millionaire
      • Turkey Street
      • Passage of the Stork
      • Drinking Camel's Milk in the Yurt
      • Perking the Pansies
      • Passage to Persia
      • An Inconvenient Posting
    • Moving >
      • The Newcomer's Dictionary
      • Vida en Movimiento
      • #LivingTheDream
      • This Messy Mobile Life
      • Living Elsewhere
      • The Art of Transition
      • Life in Motion
      • Going Local in Gran Canaria
      • Unpack
      • Should I Stay or Should I Go?
      • Finding Your Feet in Chicago
      • Deconstructing Brazil
      • Laptop Entrepreneur
      • @Home in Dubai
    • Fiction >
      • The Legend of the Dancing Baobab Tree
      • Boudica's Daughters
      • A Family Just Like Mine
      • Bernard the Wombat
      • From Barcelona
    • Health & Wellbeing >
      • Méthode Adamski
      • De Regreso a un Futuro Para a Humanidad
      • Retour Vers un Avenir pour L'Humanité
      • #LivingTheDream
      • How to stand Up to Sexism
      • The Art of Transition
      • Vida en Movimiento
      • Life in Motion
      • This Messy Mobile Life
      • In Search of the Best Swedish Chokladbollar
      • Unpack
      • Benjamin's Bedtime Journey
      • Tracce di BioGeometria​
      • Do You Still Have Cleavage with Just One Breast?
    • Wealth >
      • Whose Career - Yours, Mine or Ours?
      • The Millennial Money Masterplan
      • Here We Are
      • The Flight of the Soul Millionaire
      • The Soul Millionaire
      • Seasons of Wealth
      • Secrets of a Financial Adviser
      • Laptop Entrepreneur
      • Retire to the Life You Love
      • Now It's Clear The Career You Own
    • Travel >
      • Travels Through Asia
      • The Twelve Days of Christmas Safari
      • Jump Down Under
      • Italy, a Romantic Journey
      • Postcards from the Ege
      • Going Local in Gran Canaria
      • Deconstructing Brazil
    • Children and Young Adults >
      • The Legend of the Dancing Baobab Tree
      • The Twelve Days of Christmas Safari
      • Hanna and the Flying Carpet
      • Boudica's Daughters
      • A Family Just Like Mine
      • Bernard the Wombat
      • Benjamin's Bedtime Journey
      • Hanna Och Den Flygande Mattan
    • Humour >
      • Living Elsewhere
      • Life After My Saucepans
      • What About Your Saucepans?
      • Turkey Street
      • Perking the Pansies
    • Faith >
      • The Art of Transition
      • Vida en Movimiento
      • Life in Motion
    • Music >
      • Ar Lan y Môr​
    • Foreign Language Books >
      • El Prologo
      • Der Prolog
      • Méthode Adamski
      • De Regreso a un Futuro Para a Humanidad
      • Retour Vers un Avenir pour L'Humanité
      • Vida En Movimento
      • Hanna Och Den Flygande Mattan
      • Tracce di BioGeometria
  • For Writers
    • Jo Parfitt, Mentor
    • Paddy Hartnett, Proofreader
    • author2author
    • Writing Retreats
    • Free Writers' Resources
  • News