I Had A Life Crisis | 3 Stages To Overcome Yours

Throughout your life, there are certain moments that fundamentally change you and your perspective. Today, I wanted to share a little more about the journey I have been on for the past year. It has taken me quite some time to write something about it, as seclusion has felt very healing for me. But, something inside of me knows somebody needs to hear these words. This is my journey to seek a more purposeful life.

I still remember the day my perception of the world shattered in front of me. I believe there were a lot of warning signs for me to “wake up” but I ignored them all. Personally, it took pretty intense public humiliation for me to deeply look at the way I was living my life. There was a lot of pain during this time, but also a lot of learning and awakening. 

The only way I can explain it was: I felt so out of place in my own body. I worked 70+ hours a week, I was out of touch with what made me happy and I lacked security and trust in my future. But like most, had a perfect curated social media profile that made everyone think differently. When I was going through this life crisis, I turned to the internet for answers. The more research I did, others were calling this an existential breakdown/dark night of the soul. Basically, it is the breakdown of yourself and your ego. A moment an individual realizes that you might not be who you thought you were all along. It is where you start to question all your habits of your old self. Especially your motivations, desires, goals, personality and values.

Google was telling me to hang on because if I leaned into the uncomfort I would come out my truest self. It would be a period of dark, followed by a light that is brighter than I’ve ever experienced. I would come out a more pure version of myself and live a life that felt simpler. It’s been 9 months since I Googled that, and everything has been exactly as others explained. My hope is to explain a little about what my journey was, to hopefully help someone who is in the same situation as me. Please note, this is just my journey, I am not an expert of any sort, but I hope my experience can help.

Stage 1: Silence/Emotional Purge

My path to feeling better first started by silencing myself. I completely removed myself from social media, and friendships for that matter too. I began to learn about all the parts of me that I rarely had time to check in on. I won’t sugar coat this, it was tough. I cried every single day for months. Eventually, I started to become frustrated, and mad at the healing process. I was sick of feeling low, and slow. But a good friend told me “Morgan, when there is pain, you need to sit with it”

“The best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.” - Henzy Wadsworth Longfellow

So, I let it rain and rain and rain. I let anything and everything come out of me. Sometimes I would laugh, cry and be angry all about the same thing. I changed my perspective from seeing these emotions as a drag to viewing them as a gift. A wonderful moment in time where I can explore myself and get to know who I truly am. I didn’t try to fix my emotions, rather I let myself feel everything I needed to feel. With no judgment, I just let myself purge everything I needed to. I also picked up baking around this time which was a helpful way to settle the pain inside my mind. I also started to regularly meditate, and have multiple baths a day to calm myself down. With time, the pain decreased, the anxiety too, and I knew I was ready for the next chapter of healing. This phase lasted 2 months for me.

Stage 2: Awareness/Alignment

The next phase was when I began to seek interest in decluttering, intentional living, and digital minimalism. I found a lot of momentum and strength in deleting the unnecessary out of my life. For the first time I was hearing myself. To this day, I continue to find so much joy and peace in less. They say clutter is the enemy of clarity. It is anything and everything that gets in the way of the life you want to be living. Something that got in the way of my way of living was the number of notifications I received on a daily basis. In hindsight, I was on autopilot, and I lived a lot of my life for others. So in this phase, I designed my values for my life. Deeply understanding my values gave me a compass to navigate all future decisions. It also allowed me to understand why I felt so out of alignment for so long.

During this time, I also picked up work that would help me get outside again. Although I was running a coaching business, I found extra purposeful jobs that connected me back to my roots.I found a lovely family and decided to watch their growing boy a few days a week. Spending time by the beach, in the forest, and watching his childlike mindset reminded me that life is all about perspective. I started to train for an ultra running race and hired a coach to help me do so. I shortly after rolled my ankle from being a newbie trail runner. But nonetheless, running brought back so much strength. I focused on micro-goals during this phase and found the fire inside of myself again. This phase lasted 4 months for me.

Stage 3: Deep Healing

The next phase was when I started to become more interested in longer meditations, looking into my shadow, practicing yin yoga, reading about the power of presence, understanding my childhood, and building a stronger relationship with god/source/a higher power. (All of which will be an ongoing journey and will be for the rest of my life). During this time, I also attracted a lot more spiritual beings into my life. Individuals who deeply understand and honor the space needed to connect with a source outside of themselves. It was one of my mentors who told me “You know you don’t have to do all this hard life stuff alone right?” It was this “aha moment” where I opened my heart and stopped trying to do everything by myself. I now make time every single day, to slow down and connect. This has helped me not only in my own life, but as a mentor to others as well. 

This phase was where I felt the sun was shining on my face even when it wasn’t there. My life began to make more sense, and my self-awareness was at an all-time high. I started to begin to feel a strong sense of being centered. I was more in control of my mind than I ever had been. It felt powerful. I naturally began to vibrate a different wave, and coach differently too. I was finding that my clients were more attracted to what I was teaching them, and the changes in their life were reflective of that. I was starting to see the power of how this deep work was healing others too. This phase I believe I am still in.

Which leads me to now. These days I find myself living a much more intentional life than I ever have. I have a wonderful business that is very rewarding but I also have a lot of calm and peace. I never thought “entrepreneurship” and “calm” could go in the same sentence but with a lot of deep learnings I now have that. I felt like I woke up to what really matters and lost interest in what I used to care about. I began seeking a path more purposeful than accumulating wealth, holding power, winning at the competition, or securing a career. I seek a different type of happiness. A secure type of happiness that sits within my body vs. outside of it. This has been the journey of shifting from stress and survival and into a state of calmness and serenity.

So if you are resonating with this, I want to give you a big virtual hug and encourage you to honor whatever you’re going through. You will come out alive, and you will come out brighter and stronger. Hang on. I know it is hard… but you can get through this.

Morgan xx

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P.S If you feel that this resonated with you, please share this with a friend or someone you know that it could help.