Five Joyous Ways to Deal with Change

Below is a short list of extra thoughts I've had about dealing with the opportunity to change. I'd love to hear feedback and your own thoughts on how you've experienced change in your life.

1. Ratchet down your expectations, and those of others.

I've learned that nothing earthly lasts forever. Nothing.

You can have reasonable expectations, or even goals of how you’d like something to turn out, but you can’t tie yourself to that result. Reducing or having no expectations about a relationship, a business, or a situation can help you accept whatever may come from it. In fact, you can now often enjoy the fruits of being surprised.

Others can put expectations upon you and how you will face a change. Resist the urge to turn from the consistent in your foundation and adopt the ways of others. You don't have to be strong or stoic, or expect that you can always be at peace in the midst of a change.

2. Acknowledge change, but don't invite it.

Some of us live refusing to believe that change was in the realm of possibility in a situation. Change can happen quickly and at any point. Others don't seem to ever be able to find satisfaction, and are always trying to make change happen. Both are improbable and can result in frustration.

Be aware that change can happen in your life. This means understanding that things can and will be different from how they are now. When you are craving change, put forth the effort to provide a place for it, but with patience.  Acknowledging change is allowing it to happen when it unfolds instead of approaching change from a place of resistance or revolution.

3. Accept change.

Either by force or by chance, changes will come. Being content doesn't mean we resist change.  No use trying to forge ahead even in futile situations.

Instead of resisting, allow change to unfold and try to understand what’s happening and why. Even when it doesn't make sense, it can make growth.

Accepting change helps you to make the necessary shifts in your life to embrace the change, and help you move forward after the event.

4. Learn from the experience.

If you accept and embrace change, you will start looking for and finding lessons in it.

When some of the most dramatic changes were happening in my life, I refused to acknowledge them at first, so change left me distraught and without meaning. You can feel like all eyes are on you, so you can't allow yourself to be wavered. Once I reflected back and finally accepted the changes, the lessons I started absorbing were profound.

Change becomes your greatest teacher, but only if you give yourself, and others,  permission to learn from it.

5. Squeeze the wisdom - become consistent in change.

The more you face the impermanence of life, the better prepared you are for the next round. You nurture your consistency. Now you can be more proactive.

When you proactively embrace change and learn to accept it as a part of life, you are filled with more calmness, peace, and courage. When life fails to shake you up with its twists and turns, you realize that changes can’t break you. Now, you've reached a level of understanding in life that some might even call wisdom.

While by no means have I reached that place called wisdom, I’m working through my responses to change. I don't bulldoze my way through it, dragging others behind me, and neither do I run from it. I'm not just embracing it - I'm squeezing it - getting all the good out of it I can.