Life is all about change, we know that nothing remains the same forever. Not all change is bad and not all change is always desirable. Change is just change, the way life works. We have seen it, experienced it, and yet we often struggle. The issue is not the change itself, it is just that most times we struggle to embrace change.

Embracing change does not mean that we resign to our fate and become helpless in a changing situation. Neither does it mean that we accept the change as a permanent new normal.  It will serve us well to reflect on what this embracement means.

It starts with intellectually accepting the facts as they present themselves. Understanding the change helps in dealing with the change. This aspect is easier done than the emotional acceptance of change. Our struggle is not so much with what happened as it is with the internal upheaval of what this could possibly mean for us.

Recognising that our emotional upheaval is coming from the anxiety of the future in itself is the answer to our problem. The ability to bring our mind back into the here and now, embracing the opportunity to best respond to a changing situation helps us take change in our stride.

Sometimes we get stuck in a question over which we either had no control or were not responsible for – ‘why did this happen?’.  There is a huge difference between reflecting on that as a learning and thinking about it with resistance. Dropping the resistance to change helps us embrace the new situation we are put in.

A good sailor realigns his sails when the wind changes. He has prepared for this and is ready to act. He is mindful of the storm but is equally mindful that fear and over-excitement don’t create an internal storm that robs him of his ability to charter a new course.

The winds of life will never blow only in one direction. When we don’t get blown away, but rather find the ability to realign ourselves, we would have understood the powerful principle that our life truly changes when we embrace change.

(Picture – My Alma Mater – St.Xavier’s College)