Most of us have heard the adage that the only constant in life is change. It happens every day personally, socially, nationally and more. Most of us, however, do not adjust well to change, whether positive or negative. That has nothing to do with our character, but more with our personalities and how we were raised. I’m going to give a few pointers on how to deal with change and adjust to it.
As with any difficulty that someone may have, I would suggest that you train yourself to become aware of your own response to change. Think of what it may have been like for you if you recently moved, had a child, lost someone important to you, lost a job, lost a home or valued possession, etc. Bring to your remembrance your emotions, thoughts, and even physical problems that surfaced after the change. Did you feel anxiety, sadness, or did you feel numb from your emotions? Did you find yourself feeling sick, experiencing headaches, neck or back pain? Did you start having thoughts of self-doubt, doubting others, doubting your faith? Did your sleeping patterns or appetite change? It’s important to know (for the sake of knowledge, not to judge yourself or the situation) how you responded or reacted. These reactions are indicators of what your body and mind are doing in response to the change. There are techniques and therapeutic methods that can be used to decrease these responses and help as a future prevention, however, that will not be discussed in this article.
Once you are aware of your reactions, then you can look at the actual change itself. What happened and which parts of change did you have direct control or power over? What part of the change can you influence? Most of the time, we do not have power over the actual event of change. At that point, we have to train ourselves to give up our attempt at trying to control the uncontrollable. We can do that by falling back on our foundation (see article 1) and focusing on what we have power over. The truth is, we have power over ourselves, only. There is very little that we can control in this world. That does not render us powerless. We can control ourselves, learn from the past, and prepare for the future. We can only do our best, and our best will change from day to day.
If you have further interest on change, review my blog site http://lawdawgsmentalhealth.blogspot.com/ for more information.
