When I first met my friend Jen she believed that she was irreparably broken. The more we talked and the more she told me about her life it became apparent that she had a very strong need for a lot of variety in life.

This was good, as the quality of our life is connected to our relationship with the uncertainty that is inevitable in life.

And Jen’s sense of adventure was on overdrive! She spoke of her trips to South America, Egypt, and all over Europe, and while she spoke the more energy seemed to flood into her. Her eyes would become alive, her posture shifted dramatically, and her voice grew in power. Then the pandemic hit and travel shut down.

It is impossible to travel when there is no way to get to where the adventure is, and Jen felt stuck.

The reality is that we only get stuck in our own heads when we look at things in terms of what we don’t have and what we can’t do. That’s easy, we have all mastered limiting ourselves because it comes so naturally to us.

Jen used her sense of adventure to leverage herself out of the belief that she is broken and will always feel depressed and joyless. She saw that travel was out during that time, but then she asked, “I know all I can’t do, but what can I do?”

That simple shift changed everything. She began to find hiking trails around her area, and found that there were many places that had waterfalls nearby. She decided since her world travels were on hold for a bit, she would begin hunting waterfalls.

Getting out into nature with a purpose, to find something that she found so beautiful, and filling that need for variety in her life brought a peace back to her that she lost years ago. Jen’s perspective shifted from one of being broken to one of thankfulness for the nature that surrounds her. The greatest part is that now with this new empowering, uplifting mindset, Jen is conquering all the other obstacles in her life with a powerful grace that comes with staying true to yourself.