Recently I visited Portland, where I lived for 6 years.

It was an emotional experience, seeing the beauty of the place, visiting my old haunts and seeing friends. And it was a realization that that time was over. It will never be the same.

When we have segments of life that we really enjoy, it’s hard to not look back and pine for what was. But if we keep looking back, we get stuck in the past and we cannot create a future. And we can get stuck in loss.

How do you deal with change?

Guaranteed life will change. Sometimes life is like a roller coaster ride. There are ups and downs, screams of terror, screams of joy and it keeps changing. Sometimes it does whoop de doos and sometimes it goes upside down, but it’s all part of the ride.

Whether it’s a change in relationships, change in a job, change in family or friendships and circumstance, it just keeps changing.

You can have the essence of what you had. You can find love again, you can have a home again, you can have comfort, you can have beauty, you can have friendships. Just allow the faces to change.  Imagine gathering up the essence of what you really enjoyed and imagine sprinkle it out into your future.

As you imagine what you want, you tune your brain to be aware of it, to find the essence of it and with that awareness you are able to scoop up the opportunities as they come.

Is there a time in your past that you long for? Is there something you feel you’ve left behind? Give the essence of it an image and carry it with you or set it out in your future.

“If you want something bad enough, all the world will conspire to bring it to you.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.

When you get clear about the essence of what you want, you can find it. What do you want to show up in your future?