Five Reasons Why a Willingness to Embrace Change is Essential to your Wellbeing

By Stacie Rose

(As seen in BC THE MAG)

You know that feeling when a beloved family physician retires, or a favorite restaurant closes, your child’s teacher takes a leave, a hair dresser switches salons, a sweet neighbor or dear friend moves away, a product becomes discontinued, a cosmetic company changes it’s lip formulas and retires your color, a beautiful tree in front of your home loses its leaves for the season? When the element of familiarity fails panic can set in. Our connections with people, places, products and with nature and the safety of knowing we can count on certain things leaves us vulnerable.  And vulnerability can be challenging.

There are many reasons to accept change. The first being that we sadly---- and happily have no choice. Change is inevitable and at certain times in your life as the gentle breezes or wild winds of change blow you may be thinking “thank goodness” things are changing. It all depends on your current mood, place in life and state of mind. We must accept what we cannot change. Right? Or more squarely on the nose, we must accept change because it’s a part of being human and experiencing life here on earth and getting the beautiful opportunity to fully be. The distinction here is having the willingness to embrace change, to let it in, and trust that you will benefit, learn, and reach a higher level of understanding and personal growth-- and ultimately be okay.

You may break and heal and lose your way and find it again. Change is a big deal, and it can have a big impact on a person, a family unit, a relationship, a life goal, business or community. Change touches everything. Think for a moment of ecosystems and how one little change can offset, impact and cause a ripple effect that touches so many environments, species, landscapes and groups of people. Change can be tiny, nuanced or seismic. Whether it’s a sea change or a soft internal shift you are going to feel it. And the day to day changes we face and willingly create can be meaningful, incredibly lovley, painful at times, but very worthwhile and even necessary to your overall wellbeing.

There is nothing permanent except change. -Heraclitus

But if change can potentially be hard or even painful. why change?

1)    TRUST

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. -Lao Tzu

Once again. It’s inevitable. But aside from that, a good reason is TRUST. In trusting the process of your life and that things are unfolding in a way that will ultimately serve you, you are giving up the kind of control that is incredibly anxiety-inducing.  We have the agency and power to create change within ourselves and that is a gift within us all. But we cannot hold back the world. We cannot change others. We can’t change the weather. We can’t stop others from changing. We must trust that the seasons will change, that the sun will shine that the light and that the sky will change to a shade of dark and back to light. There are many things we have little or no control over. If we trust the right people, trust in ourselves, in nature and in the timing of things and remain openhearted, flexible, fluid and roll with things, when possible, life can be more joyful.

2)    PERSPECTIVE

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change -Wayne Dyer

Embracing change can help us frame things, it can lead us to roads we would have otherwise missed. It can provide us with new views, deeper prospective and enrich our lives. Change can provide answers to our personal questions, help us reconcile things and make sense of our own puzzles. Change can put a new spin on things and help illuminate shadowy spaces in our hearts and minds. Change can provide opportunity and adventure. Sometimes we don’t see change coming but we’re glad to be faced with it. Other times it feels like an unwelcome interloper but shows us something we would not have seen before or touches a place of empathy, unlocking an emotion that longed for freedom.

"The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking - Albert Einstein

3)    MOTIVATON

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. -George Bernard Shaw

Change can be a huge motivator.  A life of stagnation and perpetual stillness can feel stuck. A small change can represent a push in the right direction and become the catalyst for a bigger change and eventually help create the momentum needed to spark daily motivation to cultivate a fuller, healthier, more authentic life.  With motivation there can be no transformation. A change in habits, dietary choices, in fitness and in sleep can assist with metabolism, weight management, with mood with a feeling of accomplishment, and fulfillment of reaching one's goals.

4)    PEACE OF MIND

We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate it oppresses. -Carl Jung

When life feels overwhelming, change can be just the thing. Small adjustments in your daily routine and rituals can make a huge difference. Switching out worrying for a walk in the woods can boost your sense of wellbeing. Becoming mindful of the aspects of your life that could use a tune up and being brave enough to swim in a new ocean of possibility can be life altering. We can’t begin to imagine the people, places and things that will make beautiful editions to our lives if we offload expectations, rigidity, and fear.

5)    BE THE CHANGE

You must change your wish to see in the world - Mahatma Gandhi

It’s true that change can be terrifying and exhilarating. It can be a heavy thing. Something that takes getting used to. You may spend most of your life fending off change, or embracing it and spinning it to your advantage when you are able. But something that is for certain is that you will need to keep recalibrating, reassessing your life, your health, your relationships and your point of view. You will need to adjust your diet, your fitness routine, your plans, your ideas, your work your friendships. You will need to reevaluate things from time to time and make the necessary changes. This will require you to be the change you wish to see. You may need to end a painful relationship and begin a new joyful one, seek solutions, counseling, or refrain from ingesting gluten or dairy, even if you have tolerated those all your life. Until now! Things change!

You may find that your political views have changed, that you no longer like the cold weather or that drinking alcohol or that eating sugar no longer serves you. You may decide that your musical, or gastronomical preferences are different than they used to be -Change. Your style may change; your interests may evolve. As hard as it can be to weather change, staying the same came be harder.  This is part of being human. You may realize that you can no longer tolerate certain things and suddenly (or not so suddenly) opt to be the change you wish to see and to show others the way while you are at it. Change can be communal or intensely personal. It can be necessary or preferred. It can be excruciating or easy-peasy. But any way you choose it, and any way it shakes down, you get to choose how you will navigate it. It may come and it may go, and it may be the thing that brings you more joy than you could have ever imagined.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead

So, when you think about your wellbeing, your life, your loved ones, your purpose, be intentional, be grateful, be present -look up at the sky remember that life is precious. Whether change comes or goes- whether you choose it or it sneaks up on you, try not to be too afraid for life will change repeatedly. You have the power and agency to make a change that works for you at any moment, again and again and again.

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. -Rumi