Welcome Change & Transition

When I think back to the start of W.I.S.E.R. Woman Coaching in 2016, I was anticipating retirement because I knew that it would take awhile to build a small one-woman coaching business, and I also knew that change and transition can be a challenge without a plan.

I started my business working with women who struggled with emotional eating and body hatred. I think, looking back, I made that decision because this niche was something I could relate to - for decades I’d been a chronic dieter and weight was always a top concern. It seemed I was always trying to change my body and always ending up in the messy middle when dieting failed me - I lived in transition between one diet and another or one diet and eating obsessively. There was no peace with food or my body - ever.

I plugged away on building my business off the side of my desk while I was still working in my job. The transition between that and being able to step into working as much or as little as I wanted in my business felt as though it took forever. I knew the change from employee to solopreneur was coming but it took 4 years to actually happen. Retirement finally arrived in June 2020 and I could finally focus solely on what I loved and wanted to do.

So, over the last 3 years I’ve worked hard to achieve my goals - I envisioned women coming to me who were ready to resolve emotional eating and create a peaceful relationship with food. I thought that was what I wanted and where I needed to take my business.

Increasingly it felt as though I was trying to put a square peg into a round hole.

The women I began working with wanted help with anxiety and stress.

They were in the throes of changing careers.

Their children were leaving home; and they struggled to know what was next for them and who they were going to be if not a mom, employee and wife.

They were women who felt there was so much more - and yet couldn’t figure out what that was or where to start looking for it.

They wanted to find and explore creativity, tap into a deeper meaning in their lives, let go of old habits, beliefs and traumas that kept hanging around, and found themselves wanting a spiritual perspective beyond traditional teachings.

And, they were ageing, or what I call “coming of an age” into mid-life and beyond, feeling invisible to self and society, unsure what to make of changing bodies that no longer have youth on their side,

It took me awhile to let go of the idea that I had to be working with food and body issues, despite what I was seeing right in front of me. The most common denominator between all the women and issues I was working with (and by the way, loving) in my practice, apart from women and aging, was change and transition.

The moment I realized I could let food and body concerns go as my primary focus, I sighed a deep sigh of relief. The Universe had been telling me for 2 years and yet I couldn’t see it until just recently.

My life has been filled with change and transitions - I love that I now get to be fully on board with teaching others to create meaningful change and navigate transitions with more ease. I love seeing confidence and self-compassion grow in my clients as it has with me over time.

It was with joy that I created the banner at the top of the page. The logo isn’t quite right yet - part of it will be changing but in the meantime, I’m finally loving that I can share this change with you and tell you that no matter how long you’re finding yourself in the messy middle called transition, you’ll find your way out and allow yourself to move on.

I’m excited about the future of W.I.S.E.R. Woman Coaching as I continue to grow my practice and add therapeutic/expressive writing into the mix! Stay tuned for more about tapping and writing and a variety of ways to become more of the woman you want to be as you move ahead as the crone, sage or “coming of an age” as a W.I.S.E.R. Woman.

Won’t You Join Me?

Come into my world as a client or a W.I.S.E.R. Woman Notebook member so we can hang out, learn and grow with each other, and move through change and transition with support and grace. In each edition of the Notebook, I pose questions to write about that help us sort through the rabbit holes we tend to go down when change and transition are upon us.

Joan

P.S. I pulled this card today: “Perhaps it is reminding you, now, that you are here for a reason. When you strip it all down to the soul..what work are you being called to do? And why are you here at this time?” (From The Sacred Creators Oracle)