You start the cleanse and you get a gnarly headache and feel super grumpy all of a sudden.

You’re cleansing to feel better but instead you feel worse.

Hang in there. It always gets worse before it gets better.

Your new skincare regime promises to create a luminous complexion. But after three days you’re breaking out like the high school kid who bags your groceries.

Keep going. The pus (literal or metaphorical) must rise to the surface in order to leave your experience.

You commit to saying no more often so you can say yes to your own priorities. But instead of feeling freedom you have a knot in your stomach. And guilt.

It’s normal. Every new decision creates discomfort, but that doesn’t mean the decision was a bad one. {Tweet it!}

You decide to finally clean out your closet. But three hours into the project your room looks like a bomb went off. And you’ve only gone through the sweaters so far.

That’s how it goes. Order comes after the chaos.

You wake up at 4am (again) worried about that thing that’s been preoccupying your headspace for the last week and a half. It’s dark. Deep, thick dark.

You lay awake ruminating for longer than you’d care to count. But then, almost imperceptibly, the light begins to creep in. And before you know it, the first golden hints of sunrise are lapping at the places where your curtains don’t quite block the window.

You drift peacefully back to sleep as the dark begets the dawn.

We make changes because we want things to be better. But often things go to hell before they point heavenward.

The mistake is to quit when it gets worse.

Instead, we must remember that it’s always darkest before the dawn. The good stuff comes after the bad stuff has had time to clear the scene.

But we must give it that time and not give up.

It’s easier to do when cleaning out a closet than when overhauling a life.

But the same principle applies.

Keep going. Don’t worry. Have faith.

It always gets worse before it gets better.

But the better is just around the corner.

OVER TO YOU: