Take a chance to leave that which is now constricting in your life

Hello, Doctor Anita Johnston here. I'm on Guam at Ty Ty Beach.

This is the beach of my childhood. I spent many, many days on this beach with my siblings, with my cousins, and with the hermit crabs.

The thing about hermit crabs, unlike other crabs that continually will have to make a new shell as they grow, hermit crabs have to, at some point in time when they outgrow their shells, go on a journey. They have to find a new shell. A new shell that fits the body that they've created.

So there always a time when the crab has to get very vulnerable because just like us, there are times that we outgrow situations in our life, and then like the hermit crab, there is a time in our lives where we get very, very vulnerable because you see, to leave your shell means that you become vulnerable to outside circumstances.

The hermit crab is coiled up inside the shell, and it's little tiny body is shaped like a little worm. At any point in time, once it loses its shell to get into a new shell, it’s vulnerable to a bird that might decide to have it for lunch; or maybe a lizard.

So it is with us.
We have to find the courage from time to time, when we have to leave that which no longer fits us.

The lifestyle that we've been living that we've outgrown. Yeah, it is scary to become vulnerable and leave that part of ourselves that was once the perfect home — the way of living that was once the perfect fit, but that we have since outgrown. And so, like the hermit crab, when we begin the journey, we have to take some risks, and we have to go find that place that is really right for us; that lifestyle that is ours.

There's a time when doing whatever you were doing with food, or your weight, may have felt like a protective shell to keep you in a place that was comfortable. But there always comes the time when you outgrow that lifestyle. If that time for you is now, take a tip from the little hermit crab, and take a chance to leave that which is now constricting in your life, that no longer is providing you with security and safety, and find your way to a new way of being that you can call home. A new way of living your life that is a much better fit.

Leaving that which has once felt so secure and so safe is never easy. But what the hermit crab understands, is that if you are going to continue to grow, you have to be willing to let go of that which no longer serves you. You have to be willing to take a chance that there is something better, something better out there waiting for you. Even when there are times of doubt and you feel like, “There's no way this is going to work out. Things are too confining, there's no way I'm going to get out of this.”

And yet, what the hermit crab has to teach us is that if you bide your time, if you allow yourself to go searching for that which you hunger for, for that which you've always longed for, you have to trust that there is in the field of all possibility, a new place for you to be. A new way of being, that is perfect for where you're at right now. That is even better than what you've been experience thus far.

And so you begin the journey.
You begin the journey in search of that, by learning to trust that it is there for you.
That it is waiting for you.

And so, if you're on the recovery journey, stay the course. Look for that which suits you. Look for that which is the perfect fit. And trust that the best is yet to come.

Like the hermit crab, find that which is the perfect fit for you. That which may be the fit for you now, even though there was once a time when it felt too big or too vast.

You will know that when you start to feel confined by the choices that you've made in the past, the decisions that you've made in the past. And now that you're seeking something new, something more expansive, something more spacious, have that be your life.

And so from the Light of the Moon Café on Guam, I will see you next time.

I would love to hear what you think, share a comment below!

Anita