Episode 1 - Why?
Episode 1 - Why?
Hello friends! Welcome to the first episode of the Seasons of Joy Podcast. I am so glad you are here!
My name is Jill Pack. I am a certified life coach and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am the owner of a coaching practice called Seasons Coaching.
I work with women of faith who find themselves struggling to navigate the different seasons of life or who just feel stuck and unsatisfied in their relationships with themselves, with others, or with God. I help them to see that it is possible to experience joy no matter the season or circumstance.
I would like to begin by telling you a little bit about why I am doing this podcast and then a little bit about me and why I came to be a life coach.
So why am I doing this podcast when there are so many out there already? What could I possibly add that you haven’t already heard? Well, the reason I am doing this podcast is to add my voice for good into the world. That is my purpose. To share the things I have learned and continue to learn that help me find more joy in my life and that may help you.
I am married to my husband, Phil, who I met at Utah State (Go Aggies!) We have been married for over 30 years and we are in the mid-season of life. We live in a small town in Cache Valley, Utah. We have raised all 5 of our children here. Three of our children are married to amazing spouses and we have 2 adorable grandchildren. We are officially empty-nesters and I will tell you that it has been an adjustment for us to say the least.
A few years ago, I found myself questioning what my purpose was now that all my children were leaving home. My youngest was getting ready to enter her senior year of high school. I had mostly been a stay at home mom, for 28 years at that point. I had some side things that I did but for the most part I stayed home. I loved it. It was definitely challenging but it was what I wanted to do and I was able to do it. I am so grateful for the opportunity and everything I learned in that season of my life. My children are amazing and taught me so much and I love each one dearly.
So, there I found myself at a point in my life when no one needed me as much anymore. All 5 of our children were paving their own way. They were discovering where they wanted their lives to go and what they wanted them to be. I don’t know if I really understood that this phase of life would really ever happen. I had been in the groove of mothering and nurturing for so long that I hadn’t really considered that things would be any different. But, there I was, wondering “now what.” I also had some relationships in my life that were a little strained. They felt hard and they didn’t look like I thought they would or believed that they should look like.
I was struggling.
I felt stuck and lost.
We have all heard the phrase, “mid-life crisis.” That is what it felt like. I felt like life was happening to me and I was just an observer. I was not experiencing joy.
About this same time, I started following a few life coaches. One in particular was Jody Moore. We are of the same faith and everything she shared resonated with me. I began applying the concepts she taught and I began to see my life change. I began to view this season of my life not as a crisis. I heard another coach refer to it as an awaking - a midlife awakening. The funny thing was my circumstances did not really change. The people in my life did not change. The only thing that really changed was me. I changed - which was life changing.
A little while later, an opportunity to attend an in-person coaching workshop came up. It was a 5 day workshop where I would be able to dive deeper into life coaching and thought work. I was just curious to learn more about the concepts I had been learning that had changed my life. I went all by myself. I didn’t know anyone. I signed up to have a roommate that I didn’t know before. There were 50 women there for 5 days of teaching, learning and coaching. I made friends and found connections with some amazing people.
Honestly, I did not go thinking that I would become a life coach. That really was not my intention at all. At that time, I still didn’t totally understand what being a life coach meant. I had heard of life coaches in the past but I kind of believed it was all a little hokey. I just wanted to go to learn more about how to apply the concepts to my own life at a deeper level. Most of the women there had the goal, I believed, to become a life coach. It would come up in the conversations and people would talk about that desire. When people would ask me if I was going to become a life coach, I actually laughed. I really didn’t know why I had gone. Being a life coach really was not my intention. To tell you the truth, I actually didn’t even really want to be coached. I just wanted to watch and learn. I wanted to be in the background.I didn’t volunteer to be coached. I really avoided it. Well, the very last day came and most people in my group knew that I had not been coached yet. When the coach asked if there was anyone that hadn’t been coached yet the whole room pointed at me. My stomach got tight and I was so anxious. I wanted to crawl under the table right then and there. But because of what I had been learning, I let myself feel anxious without reacting to it. Or for that matter, actually running out of the room. I just noticed myself and what anxiety felt like in my body. I relaxed into it. I reminded myself I was anxious because of sentences in my brain and that everything would be just fine. And it was. I was coached. And now I love to be coached and I love to coach others.
Well, a few months after I returned home from this event, I kept thinking about it. I could not shake it. My love for this work just grew and grew. The desire to share it with others grew and grew. It so happened that registration for the Life Coach School would be opening up soon. I just couldn’t shake the desire to go. One day I was just really honest with myself. I wanted to become a life coach. I loved this work and I wanted to share it with others. I told myself if I could earn the money to go then I was going to go for it. I was going to go all in. With that goal in mind I went to work and I did it. I raised the money to attend The Life Coach School and I became certified and have created my own coaching practice.
One of the first blogs I wrote over a year ago was about joy. In Greek, there are 3 words that share the same root. I don’t speak Greek and I am not sure how to pronounce them very well but I will do my best. The root is xar-. The first word is xairó which means “rejoice”, “glad for grace”. The second word is xáris which means “grace”. The third word is xará which means “joy”. These three words share the same core meaning. To delight in God’s grace. To experience God’s grace or favor. To be conscious of or glad for His grace. I believe joy is an invitation to be present with and aware of the divine grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To delight, experience, and be conscious of the strength, love, and mercy He offers each one of us because he loves us. We seek this grace more often in our struggles. This human experience includes messiness and manageability, imperfection and the inspirational, trials and triumphs, and grief and growth. When we can embrace all of it, we actually open ourselves up to joy.
As we turn to the Savior in our times of struggle we are strengthened, we feel His love and mercy, His grace. We come to really know Him. And as we come to know him, we begin to become more like Him. We invite growth and become better versions of ourselves. We are better able to love, to show mercy and to offer grace not only to others but to ourselves.
I am a 53 year old grandma and I am still learning and growing. I am loving this season of life. I am learning to grow a business. I am learning to find joy in life regardless of my circumstances. I am learning to love deeply regardless of the choices of others. I am learning how much we are really loved by our Heavenly Parents. We each are amazing and we matter. We are here on earth to become our best selves and to experience joy. This doesn’t mean everything is going to go perfectly. Or, that others will behave exactly the way we want them to. But through all of the seasons and struggles of life is where we find joy. The contrast of life is what makes it truly beautiful. Without the bitter we don’t know the sweet. The only thing we really have control over is the person we want to be - the person we want to be right now, the person we want to be when things don’t go as planned, the person we want to be when life is messy, the person we want to be when we are brought to our knees in sorrow.
My goal with this podcast is to share with you things I have learned and that I continue to learn that may help you find joy in your seasons of life.
Over the next few weeks, I will share with you a principle I call The Pause Principle. It has three parts to it. I will cover the first part next week.
Thank you again for listening and I wish you a joyful week!
To schedule a Discovery Call or to join my Seasons of Joy Community, go to Seasons Coaching.
