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Living in Vienna is such an amazing experience filled with new culture and new ways of operating. I am also learning that adjusting to a new culture, language and location proves to be a journey with many new mountains.
Though it is an amazing place to live, loneliness is a hurdle I face daily as I adjust to living in a new country.
Our home sits in the 14th district 35 minutes outside of central Vienna. We live in one of the most beautiful places in Vienna with the countryside right up against our apartment complex. Every other day I walk to a mall that has things like the market, bakery, little sweet shops, the gym, H&M and more. Though it is an amazing place to live, loneliness is a reoccurring feeling I face daily as I adjust to living in a new country. Feelings are not easy to sit in especially when these feelings are new and unfamiliar. Feelings can be confusing because though it may seem that you have everything to be happy, if you aren’t feeling good, life seems grey. When life is grey it is hard to think clearly and be a voice of encouragement and give grace to yourself and others. But through my experience of loneliness, I am learning to face this mountain in my journey instead of ignoring it. To ignore these mountains is to ignore part of ourselves and the person we are becoming. Choosing to face these mountains is the first step to overcoming them. Acknowledging the hard feelings helps us move through them instead of being held by them. Whatever you may be going through, I believe that you can face it and overcome it even if it seems impossible.
It isn’t in our nature to think positively when we are going through something hard.
I have learned that it is much easier while walking through a season that is rocky and uncharted to submit to fear, anxiety and worry rather than walking in peace, grace, and joy. As pioneers, we will always be walking through new seasons. With new seasons come new mountains like loneliness, fear, anxiety, worry, (fill in the blank) but I am here to cheer you on and encourage you that you are capable of walking through the journey you are in. As I mentioned above, acknowledging the mountains in front of us is the first step to overcoming them. You may be asking “once I acknowledge the mountain in front of me, what do I do next?”.
(Picture taken in Salzburg Oct. 2022)
After acknowledging the mountain in front of you, the next step is to listen to the feelings that you are experiencing revealed by the mountain.
Listening to our feelings while walking through a new season may feel uncomfortable as well as too much to handle but I am here to share that though it may feel awkward or challenging to listen to our emotions, it is important if we want to overcome the mountains we are facing. When we give our weary mind, heart, and soul a voice, it gives us the opportunity to recognize our feelings but not let them choose the way we will move forward. As we acknowledge our weary body, we can choose to be a voice of encouragement and strength even when it is not our first choice. Choosing to be a voice of encouragement, grace, and joy when our feelings tell us we can’t, gives us the ability to be a pioneer in our own story – it may be uncomfortable living in the rocky areas of our life, but it is worth the work and adventure to reach the top of the mountain and overcome.
Just as I am living in a new place that seems uncomfortable and lonely, you may be experiencing hard feelings that are challenging to acknowledge.
When we choose to acknowledge the feelings, we are experiencing, we can face them head on while being kind to ourselves in the process. Listening to our emotions, gives us the ability to walk through a season with grace, strength, and joy. There is always beauty and growth in the process of facing our current challenges. Let’s face our mountains together and remind each other that it is possible to get to the top and overcome.
(Picture taken in the Austrian Alps Oct. 2022)
Now I want to ask you, how do you keep walking forward when you feel like the mountains are too big for you to handle?