Aging Brings Change: How Change Can be Good

People change. Circumstances change. My friend’s mother recently passed away, and it was a shock for the family. My neighbor lost her job and started a new home-based business. I just packed up my daughter, who is off to college, and now have an empty nest. Life is in a constant state of flux.

Nationally, we are in the middle of an election which will change the direction of the country, people are struggling financially, and there is a mortgage crisis which is affecting people’s lifestyles significantly. Nothing stays the same, and yet we strive to maintain the status quo, trying to keep things the way they have always been. People believe that change is hard, and yet change is all around us whether we like it or not.

Our lives change on a daily basis. We change our clothes, the foods we eat, the direction we take to go to work or to school. Everything is subject to change. Even the cells in our body change every day. We don’t really think about these kinds of changes because they usually don’t affect our security. When changes occur that create fear of the unknown, that’s when feelings of discomfort and pain surface. It’s the loss of control in an otherwise familiar environment that creates our stress. However, we do have a choice when it comes to how we choose to look at such inevitable changes.

There is a transitional period, an emotional process that occurs when you experience change in your life. It might stir up feelings of sadness or anger that cause you to be uncomfortable or uneasy. Find the courage to go through the feelings of discomfort and pain, and recognize that it is part of the process.

Change requires us to let go of what was, and to stop wishing that what exists should be different. Too often our thoughts and our resistance to change only add to the suffering. Acceptance is the first step toward peace of mind. It can be a very powerful experience to mentally shift your attention from the past to the present moment, from what was or what “should have been” to what is and what is right in front of you at this very moment in time. This is not always easy, but it can become easier when we make it our practice. Self-development guru Dr. Wayne Dyer has said, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

Many times we judge change as “bad,” and yet change can present opportunities for us that might have never existed otherwise. How adaptable are you to change? Change may be the very catalyst needed to catapult you in a direction to grow emotionally, mentally and spiritually. This insight is not always obvious in the present, but in hindsight we are able to look at what happened and understand how it all fit into the big picture. Our lives are a journey with many unexpected twists and turns along the way. It is impossible to live life without going through changes, and it is up to you how to choose to deal with them.

Posted in Articles on Life Coaching