We have all experienced beginnings in our lives.
Beginnings can mean, the act of starting something, the time when something will start or the origin of something (https://vocabulary.com). Unique to the individual, each experience contains light and shadow ‘material’ which must be embraced if we are to achieve wholeness.
‘There will come a time when you believe everything is finished, that will be the beginning’
Louise L’Amour
Beginnings can be experienced from a personal and professional perspective. When there are new beginnings, ie: new year, new month, it is natural to make resolutions. Often there is a determination to reorganise, adjust or transform relationships, behaviours, environments. Yet, it seems that for many it is difficult to fully embrace the possibilities and opportunities that beginnings offer because we are scared, unsettled and fearful of the unknown.
One way of perceiving beginnings is that they are foundational blocks for building a future which embrace cultural history, diversity, economics, and social issues. The blocks come in all shapes and sizes which can represent opposing and complex states that can feel unsettling as we move out of our comfort zone to make way for change. This process might mean seeking help or support which can feel ‘alien’, uncomfortable or unfamiliar, especially for those working under the umbrella of Health and Social Care’; nurses, teachers, social workers, therapists (the list is endless).
How we have experienced beginnings in our lives creates a narrative that we give our own meaning to, and which in turn, influences the way that we anticipate and embrace uncertainty. They can mark or signify something that is new, sometimes through choice and sometimes not. When the latter happens, it might be that organisations, colleagues, friends, family are stunting our growth because they are fearful that you will not be the ‘same’ person or have new ideas that will challenge their thinking. This is especially true when organisations or employers feel threatened.
As therapists, we welcome these opposing and complex states as we support the client to be empowered to embrace their experiences as a way of resetting. Yet, how many of us embrace beginnings for ourselves?
Returning to the idea that beginnings are foundational blocks, metaphorically, we can see that the mortar that binds the shapes and sizes together only becomes solid through the process of transformation.
Personally, and professionally, we need welcome the experience of entering unchartered territory and navigation through uncertainty because ‘if you can actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you’ (Barbara Shur’)