All Change Please

Change seems all around us. Obvious of course but sometimes the speed is alarming. You can swing from just going along in your routine and then be into an almost unrecognisable life.

When the changes are unwelcome how can we manage them? Look to a higher meaning, wonder what life is trying to teach us and look for the benefits of the situation? Easier to do in hindsight I think.  When you are in the midst of challenging changes that are throwing your life into disarray, you can just feel angry and unfairly treated. But intellectually we know that there is little use in railing against the unfairness of it all, we know we must concentrate the mind to focus on moving on and the new future that seems to wait.

I like to reflect on the image of all living beings, from the most basic plant and beyond if it is not growing and developing than it is dying. There is no staying still in the world of clear nature. When facing difficult change I can feel reassured by taking in nature. The relentless nature of regrowth and rebirth is so reassuringly strong, it supersedes anything mere humans can come up with. So move on and grow, even if it this is a path you did not envisage, what can be made of this new path? And perhaps if you cannot yet understand this path in this moment than know that at a point in the future you may very well be able to. I appreciate that there is an element of the Pollyanna thinking in this kind of attitude, but why not? A positive frame of reference can help you to find the energy to move on; a negative one will seek out the angry part of you and cause inertia that will make it difficult to move on to the next good part of life.

And you can be absolutely sure that just as the difficult and trying ‘bad’ times do come along, so do the joyous good times. This is the reflection in all of our lives of the continual growth and development that, if we can just relax into it, can help us to mature and develop into the amazing people we are meant to be.

And know, or perhaps reflect on, how even welcome change can be alarming. The fear of not knowing can sometimes overwhelm us and stop us taking a chance and embracing good fortune through fear and suspicion. Experiments found that the luckiest people in the world are the ones that believe themselves to be lucky, too long to explain here, suffice to say that people who consider themselves lucky are always on the lookout for opportunity and low and behold they find opportunities.

As a family, we often reflect on the deeply irritating, but obviously truthful, quote of Friedrich Nietzsche “That which does not kill us makes us stronger“.  Sometimes I am quite clear I have no desire to be any stronger but equally, I know I am becoming wiser, more compassionate and more aware of a bigger picture. Perhaps the gift is to pass on to others?

Hold tight to the knowledge that the endless movement and change in your life is just doing what it is meant to do. Leading you to the amazing, fulfilled and unique person you are meant to be.

Angela