My friend Judith Tamarah, an interior designer, wrote about doorways in her last newsletter, making a parallel between the doorways of a physical space and those of a more internal space:

“It is a pause between two places, whether that is ‘where we are coming from’ and ‘where we are going’… It links these two parts together, noticing the similarities, drawing together the differences, holding onto and preserving what serves us best so that we show up with greater wholeness in our lives.”

I’ve been in a particular doorway for a bit now, and publishing this blog is an act of walking through.

And it’s scary.

Somehow, miraculously, I’ve built a coaching business without having a website or a social media presence. I’m so grateful to my clients for this. I’ve had the luxury of learning, growing, making mistakes, and trying out new things in relative privacy.

But that’s the thing: I’ve learned so much alongside my clients, through my own challenges with ADHD, through the years of study, that I feel called to share it in a larger way.

Writing this first blog has kicked up all manner of ADHD symptoms and long-held fears, and the process of moving through will likely be a topic for another day. Although I have ‘started’ this blog, no lie, hundreds of times over the years, it is quite something to move through this doorway and to end living somewhat anonymously.

I’ve travelled through a number of doorways in my own life – we all have and will continue to for the rest of our lives. And it’s been quite the adventure, hasn’t it? Some of mine have been:

• moving from living with undiagnosed ADHD to learning more about the diagnosis itself
• into a deeper discovery and acceptance of how the diagnosis shows up in my life
• moving into regarding myself with compassion as I learned to not only manage symptoms, but to expand my notion of what’s possible

I love that Judith reminds us that we get to bring with us through the doorway what serves us best. We get to choose! And when there’s some unwanted stowaway that shows up in your luggage, like old habits, patterns, and beliefs, you have the opportunity to shine the light on them and decide how you want to relate to them now.

I work with clients who are in their own doorways – that in-between place of “what I’ve known and how I’ve been doing things doesn’t quite fit anymore” and “I know there is something more and better, even if I’m not sure yet what it looks like – I want to engage with it!”

Even though the particular circumstances of each of my clients, and this place I find myself in right now are different, that inner urge toward growth and meaning, ease and joy is universal, eternal and alive, isn’t it?

Let’s travel through, shall we? Deep breath, let’s go!

This beauty flipped into my vision this morning as a nudge to get this post finished. Does it speak to you too? Card is from “tiny little pep talks” by Brave Girls Club.

Anne Marie Nantais