Sometimes we can feel as if we’ve been spinning round in the washing machine. This can follow certain challenging events or times of change. After this ‘washing machine spin cycle’, we may feel unsettled, confused, disoriented, upside down and somewhat lost.
In the pandemic, we experienced, lockdowns, openings up, closing downs, radical changes in what work and life looks like. This was clearly seismic change that may have produced this washing machine effect.
Whatever the catalyst, when we experience this inner turbulence, how about not diving straight into analysing, understanding, solving and fixing. Instead, let’s start with bringing ourselves much compassion. Whatever we are feeling, it is a perfectly valid human experience.
Regarding confusion, the position of ‘I don’t know’ can be a really powerful place. It may feel absolutely undesirable. We may judge it as something being ‘wrong’, but generally, it means that some shift is occurring.
We feel confused and unsettled because we are in new territory. We are in a process. Some change may be occuring, perhaps a new context. Like the snake, we are shedding skin and emerging anew. Confusion comes before clarity, the darkest hour before the dawn. In our reemergence we are often blessed with new insights and a new energy.
So, recognising this bigger whole, perhaps we can reframe disorientation (or the‘washing machine’) as an exciting precursor to a fabulous new stage in our life or work. And perhaps when confusion is here, we can hold steady and see it as a part of a potentially transformative process.