How Do You Bookmark Your Life?

Most days I spend in my head, in my work. I’m focused on my clients, intent on what I am doing and thinking how I can best serve and maximize.?

It’s difficult to see my own progress in this tunnel vision state.?

It’s hard to see how I’ve evolved as a human being.

It’s tough to know how I am growing. It’s challenging to get perspective – and not just on my business, but on my expansion as a human being.?

I need bookmark moments – set times, ceremonies, spaces that bring me back, on a regular basis – to the bigger questions.

Places, moments, rituals that give me time and non-judgmental support to consider where I have been, where I am and what I want. Moments filled with people who can accept, mirror and elevate my vision of myself and my business.

Last week, I had a bookmark moment with Ellivate Alliance, at our annual retreat in the glorious space of Sedona. This second annual Expand retreat meant time and space to gather with a group of brave women entrepreneurs using their feminine wisdom to run their businesses.?

I felt like a broken record repeating to the women there that this space and time, spent year after year, is so. very. valuable.

Not in the going once, but in the annual returning, again and again.

We mark time, we investigate growth, we encourage, celebrate and honor. We step back, step in, and support without judgment.

We say, “Wow, this is where I was last year.” And “Wow, this is where I am today.” Those observations are not always reflective of only successes.

Sometimes there are hardships in between.

Sometimes there are heartbreaks.

Sometimes a bunch of muddling through.?

But we have the bookmarks to guide us, and to mark time.?

As humans have evolved, we’ve greatly eroded ritual and ceremony.

For centuries, seasonal or annual events were collective bookmark moments we built our concepts of ourselves and our cultures upon. I fear in our modern world more and more of our collective moments are horrors, wars, tragedies, political moments, devastating accidents.

What happens to people and cultures who mark time in this way??

We no longer gather as we should, with openness, neutrality, consideration, and regularity. We do not consider as we should, step away to mark time, as we should.?

To do so is precious, and it’s also an honoring of the elemental nature of being human.?

The process of stepping away does not come easily.

We all struggle in the preparation, the travel, the time, the investment of going away. There are sacrifices, and worry, and tradeoffs to be made.

And yet, the rewards, both in the moment, and over the years, are vast, and deep, and rich.

And more than that, these moments plug us back into who we are, giving us the clarity to navigate our lives with more attention to who we are and how we can create from that space.?

So that, when we return to our desks, to our screens, to our daily endeavoring and to The Muchness (as I call it) of the world around us, we can approach it with more centeredness, with a combination of self-compassion and awareness for who we are – and how we want to move through to the next bookmark moment.

Emily Soccorsy is owner and lead brand strategist of Root + River (please follow our brand, too, if you enjoyed this content), a brand strategy and content firm. Root + River, a band of fervent word nerds, brand strategists and writers, provides brand messaging, positioning and catapult content for brands, leaders and teams who want to change the world, their industry or their community with their brand. What to learn more about how R+R works with clients? Go here.

Want to learn more about the extraordinary Ellivate Alliance? Go here, and connect with Sarah Elliott, our founder and fearless leader.

Full disclosure: Emily has served on the Advisory Board of Ellivate Alliance since it began. The other Advisory Board members are: Kristi Vitali PT, LMT Mariette Martinez and Fatima Mann .