 |
Good or bad – the gift of change is growth.
If you're like most people, you get excited at the arrival of new people, things and events that you believe will change your life for the better. The new career, a new boyfriend, a wedding, a new car and so on. You can't wait to live your 'new' life. You've been planting the seeds of change for a long time. The freedoms that a new car brings seem obvious. Because you ask for this change you are able to embrace even the challenges that come with the changes. Interestingly, the challenges may bring more gifts to your life than the initial change itself. That's because the challenges cause you to grow. And this is where the true gift of change arises. Without growth, you will die. You may die inside before you die physically. But resistance to change, leads to the degeneration of your mind, body and soul. And the acceptance of change brings the gifts of growth. The gift of change is that it requires you to grow. And growth requires you to change. For example, a marriage is exciting at first, but then you are required to grow so that you can build a strong relationship and love unconditionally. If you don't change, the marriage will die. This takes work. But you will become better for it. You can choose to receive the gift of change slowly or quickly, according to how quickly you want to grow and your capacity to cope with stress. Ultimately, it depends entirely on you. You may decide to take the fastest route on the highway. But once you get on, you realize you can't quite cope with the traffic, the speed and other people's bad driving. Your anxiety spirals, you panic and nearly crash the car. It might mean you need to get off for a while, so you can practise your driving more, or become stronger mentally and emotionally. The alternative is to stay on the highway, breathe deeply, handle the anxiety and just go for it. If you choose this route, you may crash or you may learn how to handle it very quickly. Either choice – eventually you will grow. But what about changes I didn't ask for?Change takes you into the unknown. It's scary even when you want it. That's why you get butterflies before a date or a new job.But when you don't ask for it, you're not even sure what the unknown is. It may feel like you're jumping off a cliff –you don't know is a cliff - with a blindfold on. You may not be able to see the gift of change at the time. But, later, when you are not so blinded by the discomfort of being in unknown territory, you will see that everything happens perfectly. Some periods of change are harder than others. But, if you have faith that all change ultimately brings something better, it can be easier to bear.
An example from my life
|
