Fear List | 3 Signs It’s Time To Move On

I moved to Bali from Los Angeles for peace and grounding. The water, the slower way of living and the energy wrapped me like a warm blanket. I wanted to live in a calm world. I deserve it. I was tired of the rat race, of the constant chaos of the US. I could feel the shift in the world for years now and I didn’t like it.

When the lesson is learned, it’s time to move on or you will continue in its unrelenting cycle. And nothing could have been more obvious as to the importance of moving on than my living situations. It’s cyclical actually. This is the same way I felt when I sold my home. It was time to go. I had spent my whole life looking for a place to root myself when I was really meant to fly. Because if I’m honest with myself, I’m not very happy here anymore. And that is a huge red flag.

You keep hoping for change, but nothing actually changes.

When I first moved into my home in Bali, it was heaven. Quiet, residential and only the sound of a curmudgeon rooster every once in awhile. But then, I left for a few months to go back home to Los Angeles.

When I returned to Bali, I found my old neighbors gone, another rooster crowing for territory on my street and tons of noise and dust from new construction that I was never told about. It got so bad that my neighbors, who moved in next door in May, moved out before October. But worst of all was the 2 am chicken wringing. Once you hear how a chicken loses life, it makes it hard for you to eat it. It’s pretty traumatizing to hear their last breaths.

I just wanted life to go back to the way it used to be. And it can’t. Change is the only constant. And I knew, that if I didn’t like the changes, I would have to move. The problem was I didn’t know where I wanted to move. I began asking God for a sign. I got an immediate response.

Why do you think you’ve been traveling to all these Asian countries?

Staying requires you to shrink, silence, or betray yourself.

The longer I stayed, the more I resented my home. I couldn’t escape the noise of the day, so I began to work at night. When I realized that wasn’t going to work because I am truly a morning person, I started working outside of the home. So now, I have to travel somewhere else and pay to work, whether it’s for a coworking space or a coffee shop in order to get free internet and peace.

My job requires me to use my voice and if I can’t talk because there is constant noise, no matter what room I’m in, daily, then I am not able to effectively do my job. Even if I wake up in the middle of the night and work, a rooster will crow once he hears me rise from my bed. I began to feel like a caged bird. But I was understanding why. I had grown and now the place I learned to grow in felt too small to stay full time.

I just had to figure out where I was flying to next. You see, travel saved me. It showed me what I feared most, loneliness and abandonment, were the very things I needed to face. Bali is quick karma like that.

My patience was waning, my spirit was sullen and my mental was mush. I had to go. But where?

You’re more attached to what it could be than what it actually is.

Bali has always been this place of peace for me in a very cruel world. But is it possible that I outgrew that peace? Is it possible that I no longer needed it in my day-to-day? Or was it possible that I had outgrown my old needs?

One thing is for certain, I didn’t need Bali in my day-to-day, but I did need the people in it. I had fallen in love with a family who have become family to me, and the only reason I would have stayed, would have been for them. That wasn’t enough, and though we were all sad, they knew I would come back and visit.

I no longer wanted daily dirt roads, suburban country living or roosters, or any poultry for that matter, as neighbors. I wanted cement sidewalks, crosswalks and museums. I wanted the beach or a pool within walking distance. I wanted public transportation besides bikes and cars. And more than anything, I wanted multicultural food and music.

The dream had turned into drama and it was time to wake up.

Remember I said I moved to Bali for peace and grounding? While I was meditating this morning, the earth began to rumble underneath my body. It was 4:15 am and we were experiencing an earthquake. I was getting a symbolic reminder that it was time to shake up my life again and get moving.

This move wasn’t just physical,; it was in the completion of tasks that God was asking me to finish.

Now I know that I am using housing at the example, but put it where it fits in your life. It could be a place, person, or a mindset, but whatever is no longer working for you needs to be removed. And how did I get here? By providing myself with self-care and support.

Are you ready to move? What signs are you receiving to make a change in your life?