How to Trust the Process When Life Feels Stuck: 4 Lessons from Fermentation
May 14, 2025
You’re doing everything right.
You’re showing up, journaling, meditating, taking action.
And it still feels like nothing is shifting.
You wonder why you’re stuck. Why nothing’s changing. Or maybe, even, if there’s something the matter with you.
But what if transformation doesn’t always look like forward motion? What if the real magic is bubbling beneath the surface?
As someone who brews kombucha and makes kimchi every week (we go through a LOT), I’ve come to believe that fermentation is one of the most powerful metaphors for personal growth.
It’s not fast.
It’s not sexy.
But it works.
Here are four things it’s taught me about trusting the process – even when nothing seems to be happening.
1. Growth doesn’t always look like movement
When I make kombucha, I start with sweet tea. I add a SCOBY, a curious-looking starter culture that looks like a horrendous culinary mistake, cover the jar and walk away.
For a week or more, it sits in a dark, cosy corner.
From the outside, nothing seems to be happening. No noise, no drama. But beneath the surface, invisible forces are transforming the contents. Sugars are breaking down. New organisms are forming. Something’s brewing.
So often, we associate growth with motion - visible results, fast feedback. We want progress we can measure.
But real transformation? It often begins in stillness. In the dark.
Just because you can’t see progress doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
2. Trust the invisible work
There’s no rushing fermentation.
Just as a gardener doesn’t pull up the seedlings to make sure they're growing, the fermenter doesn’t poke and shake the jar. You set the conditions, then let go.
You wait trustingly. You observe.
There’s something magical about that. Even when nothing seems to be happening, something is. In perfect timing.
3. Learn to bide your time
The word “bide” comes from the Proto-Indo-European root bheidh meaning “to wait trustingly” (Source: https://etymonline.com/).
Isn’t that beautiful?
Not just waiting but waiting trustingly in the expectation that something good is already on its way.
I haven’t always found waiting easy. I’m naturally impatient. Stuck in traffic, for instance, I’d obsess over the distance between where I was and where I wanted to be - home, tea in hand, cat on knee, children content. Bliss.
When we fixate on what’s missing, the gap feels bigger.
When we focus on what’s coming, everything clears.
Now, when I set my kimchi or kombucha aside to ferment, I don’t fiddle with it. I don’t overthink. I simply anticipate the delicious rewards.
4. Make space for the fizz
Here’s the thing. Transformation is not always comfortable. Or pleasant. Or Instagrammable. When I first encountered SCOBY, for example, it horrified me. I couldn’t see how this slippery, alien-like culture was going to transform my sweet tea.
But it did. In fact, it was essential. It holds the key to the whole process.
In our own lives, the catalysts for growth can look like discomfort, uncertainty, even breakdown. Things dissolve before they come together. You may not recognize yourself for a while.
That’s not failure.
That’s fermenting.
A while ago, I was diagnosed with a health condition that turned my life upside down. At the time, it felt like my world had collapsed around me. Now, with hindsight, I see how it quietly transformed me.
It invited me to stop. To listen. To really hear what my body, my soul, already knew.
I didn’t need fixing. I needed stillness.
The truth is you’re not stuck. You’re not broken. You already hold everything you need within you.
Wait trustingly for what’s ready to rise.
