Embarking

To begin. To undertake, venture or launch into a course of action. Isn’t that what we have the opportunity to do every day? Not only at the beginning of the day, when our eyes first crack open. But at every moment that follows throughout the day?

Plunging ourselves into something; a new job, a change of career direction, starting a family, a new relationship, dating after heartbreak or loss, relocating, changing a habit, getting health tests, trying out that new haircut; sounds abrupt. To take the plunge can sound quite dire, scary or exciting depending on many factors and the person in the centre of the story.

To tackle, engage in and initiate an action takes… well, it takes courage. As Brene Brown says, “You can choose courage or you can choose comfort. You cannot have both.”

It also begins with a consciousness of mind before anything else. Very rarely do we ‘accidentally’ embark on something. “Oops, I left town and moved interstate” isn’t commonly heard. So before any action is embarked upon, we must first conjure it up from within us. From our minds, and perhaps some might argue, our hearts or spirits as well.

Take considering to embark on therapy, for example. It has to come from somewhere. Was it a somatic feeling you had from deep within your body, or a growing curiosity in your mind that couldn’t be ignored any longer? Was it from an external source, a friend or colleague making a gentle suggestion? Regardless, you didn’t just stumble across websites like this accidentally, but then again, some might argue that even if you consciously think you did, perhaps it was an subconscious calling to you that happened for some reason at this particular moment in your life that when you saw it, seemed to resonate. Either way, here you are.

So there are two things required to embark. One is the inspiration, the origin of the thought or feeling that drives the action. And two, the action of the embarking. To take it right back to basics, it is a verb, a doing word. A person cannot embark by doing nothing at all. Action is required.

Now we know that action is often difficult, as we mentioned earlier it takes courage. And there are many very real and valid reasons why we may or may not find taking action hard, and this is not to discredit those. In fact, many of those may be able to be worked on.

However if there is something you have been toying with, something that excites you, or that you have felt a niggling or pull to change, let this be your call to action. Turn your listening ears inward, feel what resonates, and start with the conscious consideration… and then the embarking.