Change is an evitable process we all have to go through. Sometimes we chose to make changes, starting new jobs, changing careers, new relationships, moving home. At other times in our life we have to adapt ourselves to a changing environment, for example, redundancies, divorces and illnesses.
As humans are creatures of habit, we feel safe when our lives contain a balance of consistency and predictability, change can be quite disconcerting and as a result we can often resist by putting up barriers.
We all have an inbuilt mechanism called homeostasis. This ensures that every part of our body stays in balance, at an optimum level. For example, if the core temperature of our body deviates from the optimum temperature of 37 degrees C, various actions will take place, either the shivering response if the core temperature has dropped, or we will start sweating if the temperature is too high.
This homeostasis emulates into the rest of our life and ideally our lives as a whole would remain balanced. However life is never as simple as we anticipate, but the way that we deal with problems can not only make us more resilient, but can teach us what we value in life.
Material objects do not seem so important when a relationship ends badly, large amounts of money don’t seem to matter when faced with a serious illness, and moving away from family and friends can make us remember why we love them and just how much we miss them.
Taking every opportunity to embrace change can make us better people. Losing a permanent job through redundancies can be a chance to find temporary positions, learning new skills and working in differing environments. Showing future employers how adaptable we can be.
Alternatively it can be a chance for a career change, starting up something completely different that we have always wanted to do.
The ending of a relationship can be the start for a new friendship. Time is never wasted, and we learn something from everyone we allow ourselves to become close to.
Although having a routine can be beneficial and is certainly good for children and pets to get used to, a steadfast routine, or being “set in your ways†can make change particularly hard and can be very trying for those around you.
Instead, try doing something different. Push yourself out of your comfort zone, try to do something that scares you at least once a week.
Instead of having a bucket list of things you want to do before you are 30, or before you die… do it now.
Ask yourself, what makes you come alive? Dispel fears of failure and have confidence in yourself. There is no such thing as 100% certainty so there will always be an element of risk in every decision you make in life.
So to conclude, change is healthy and life is a process of growing and creating oneself, as Mark Twain said, “twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines, catch the trade winds in your sails, explore, dream, discoverâ€.
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