Ask a Therapist - Major Life Changes

In therapy, these sorts of major life changes can bring up a lot of agitation, a lot of stress, and it can be hard to enjoy the process. (upbeat music) Hi, I am Ryan and I'm a therapist with Headspace, and this is "Ask a Therapist", a series where I, a therapist, am going to answer some common questions that people have either about therapy or different life experiences they're going through, that they're looking for some maybe additional perspective on. Today we have a question from Vicki who has a relationships question. "My husband and I are buying a house "and talking about trying for a baby. "How can I stay present and enjoy the process "instead of getting caught up in thinking "about the end goals?" Well, Vicki, thank you so much for sharing that you are going through these major life events. Obviously, this is a very intense time and when we're going through major life changes, that can bring with it a lot of emotions and of course we'd love to fast forward to the end where you have a house and you have a baby and everything is the way that you want it to be. In therapy, these sorts of major life changes can bring up a lot of agitation, a lot of stress, and it can be hard to enjoy the process. An example might be, and this is something that my wife and I went through ourselves, buying a house, hugely stressful process. Even once you bought a house, there's moving in, there's all the different organization things that you have to do after you buy a house. One of the things I'll never forget though, is that first night in the new house we had a frozen pizza and champagne. And being able to celebrate the small steps in between the huge amount of work that we still had to do and moving all the furniture in and all the things that come with a new house, having that little win, that's the thing that I'm gonna remember. Being able to break the large goals down into smaller steps, but then to celebrate those wins along the way, that really reinforces that you're taking the actions that are necessary that will eventually get you to that end goal. Being able to celebrate going to look at a house, go for a walk, go out to lunch, talk about how you're feeling. These steps along the way help you to feel like you're doing the actions that are necessary to help you feel good even if you're not at the end step yet. So Vicki, I know you're going through a really complicated time right now, but if you can slow this process down for yourself and with your husband being able to celebrate the wins along the way. I hope this is a process that you're able to enjoy and really celebrate because it's worth celebrating. So thank you for this...