Four Tips to Help You Embrace Change 12-6-16

I’m the first to admit I hate change. Seriously, I hate it. I’ve gotten misty eyed at the semester when classes end and I have to anticipate adapting to a new set of classmates and a new set of professors. I love routine. I crave stability. It’s something about me that has been both a help and a hindrance. Despite my need and utter longing for consistency, as I’ve grown and matured I’ve found that nothing in life is predictable and stable, except the love of God, taxes, and change itself. So with that being said, I’ve had to adjust to a plethora of coping mechanisms to help me adapt to my ever changing life and this ever changing world.  Here are four techniques I’ve used to help me embrace change.

1.      Grieve: The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastics there is a season for everything under the sun. I used to avoid this chapter like the plague, because it is essentially a promise that change is inevitable. Since I can’t avoid upcoming seasons and I can’t transport myself back to seasons that I enjoyed in the past, I’ve had to learn to cope with change. One way that I’ve learned how to cope with change is to learn how to grieve. Yes grieving is not just for a death experience. Grief is also helpful in any situation where there is a loss. Loss can come in many forms. Sometimes loss is a death, but sometimes loss is a change in routine, location, friendship, etc. Loss in any form is difficult and since change so often embodies a space of loss, we have to give ourselves the opportunity to grieve it.

2.      Remember past times, fondly: So often when we are facing change, it is easy to feel like looking back is a bad thing. Not necessarily. Now, it’s not healthy to get stuck in your past; but it is healthy to fondly look back on past times and experiences.

3.      Prepare appropriately: If you haven’t finished what you needed to in the last season, it will make it difficult for you to appropriately transition and settle into a new season. When you know change is on the horizon, prepare for it by completing everything in your current season so you can move on, with little to no strings attached.

4.      Make a list of new things to accomplish or experience in your new season- part of the difficulty of change is that so often, we focus on what we leave behind rather than what we are gaining by moving forward. If we focused on what lies ahead, we will have excitement and hopefulness rather than dread for what we are leaving behind.

 

XOXO,

Myah Lonye’