How do we deal with the one certainty in life: Change?

After being in lockdown for months during a global pandemic at the time of writing, I had some anxiety about going back out into the world as restrictions ease. Being an introvert who likes company in measured ways can sometimes be a blessing in these situations in that I went into my ‘creation cave’ mode and got stuff done as there weren’t many distractions apart from the technological kind. However, it also meant that I didn’t get the daily social stimulation in real time, away from Zoom chats. In the end, I had to restrict even the Zoom chats as I felt overwhelmed by being sat at my laptop both to work and to play. I’m sure it sounds familiar.

So, how do we deal with such changes to our daily lives, not just with a global lockdown but with change and transition in general? The whole experience has certainly given us all time to re-evaluate what is important to us and take a good look at ourselves.

For those of us who may have been in a job pre-lockdown and no longer had a job or perhaps had to work in a different way all of a sudden, there is the question of detaching from identities and roles we may have played. Who are we when we no longer have the role, job or status that we used to have? I love that quote by Wayne Dyer that says ‘we are not what we do because when we don’t, we aren’t.’ We are not what we do or what we have as that would mean when we stop doing those things we are no longer ourselves. Is this the reason why some of us feel lost without our job role or the role we used to have in our families?

Our true self is eternal and constant regardless of what’s going on around you. It is only by connecting with our eternal nature that we can stay centred through the inevitable changes in our lives. Uncertainty may unsettle us. We may experience discomfort as we become emptied of all our attachments to what we may think gives us our identity.

One thing that has helped me to deal with transition and change is to appreciate the experiences that my ‘old’ life gave me. Thinking about what my learnings were from that time and what I can appreciate about it that has served me well. For example, when I left a permanent teaching role due to burnout and breakdown, I saw that as a catalyst for doing the work that I do now. It set me on a different path and trajectory. You soon begin to connect the dots looking back and appreciating what had to change and why things happened the way they did.

It is really about ‘fully inhabiting the space that you are in’ in the words of Marianne Williamson. We do not have to wait until some future time before we can feel better about things. So to sum up the takeaways of dealing with change:

Appreciate where you are right now.
Explore a different way of doing something to the way you have been doing it if you feel it’s time for change.
Ask yourself what you have learned from this situation
Use whatever tools you have to keep your energy balanced during this time of transition. For me I use The Balance Procedure, meditation, nature walks, journaling, singing and maintaining connection with loved ones.

Categories: Meditation, Relaxation, Intuition, Your body’s energy system, Imagination, Stress, Wellbeing, Creating balance, Self love