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As practitioners, we usually want to see ours and our clients’ lives moving into an upward trajectory when they work with us. We want them to wake up singing; pack in the day job for something more fulfilling; enjoying amazing relationships with friends and family and have more than enough money. We probably want all of that for ourselves too.

The reality, as we know deep down, is that life isn’t like that. Just as our bodies are different every day (we don’t have the exact same amount of energy each day, we don’t eat the same food everyday, our sleep is different from night to night), our lives are too. Crappy stuff happens. Good stuff happens too.

A while ago I heard a definition of health that was “The ability to adapt to change” and I thought what a brilliant description that is. The world changes on a daily basis, and our ability to adapt to that, perhaps with a few “symptoms” on the way, is a sign that we are healthy.

It has nothing to do with absence of illness. Acute illness can be very healthy, and a useful way to burn off, or upgrade from, something that we no longer need. Watch a young child having a physical, mental and emotional growth spurt after a bout of (unmedicated) chicken pox, for example, to see what I mean.

A big part of health is actually learning to accept these changes in us from day to day, hour to hour. If the underlying trend is towards leaving the job we hate, or making some changes to how we eat, or enjoying better relationships, that is a bonus.

Some days you might leap out of bed singing, but some days you won’t. There is nothing wrong with you. It is just part of being human. Maybe this is the greatest gift we can share with clients – to enjoy the journey with all its ups and downs.

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