Is How You Handle Change Yours to Control?

Yes, because nobody else is in your head, heart, or soul.Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

People spend endless amounts of time and money to understand things. Often, finding answers leads to stagnation because of one simple universal truth: Change is the one and only constant in the universe.

Nothing, and I mean nothing at all, is static. Everything changes. Sometimes change occurs so quickly that you blink and it’s done. Other times, change is so glacially slow that no matter how hard you look at it, you can’t see it. Yet it is, change happens, and it’s inevitable.

Person, place, or thing, it will change. That is the truest truth of the universe. That means that the answers change. And that can be infuriating.

When I was a kid, I was taught that this solar system had 9 planets. Now, Pluto is no longer deemed to be a planet. Why? Because science changed, new things about the function of our solar system were discovered, and the classification of planets shifted with it.

This is a big, impersonal example. Yet I can tell you now that who you were at age 5 is not who you are now. That’s because you’ve changed on every possible front, both tangible and intangible. Who you are mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically is always in flux.

It’s hard for us to accept change both within ourselves and in the world without, for a lot of reasons. Yet change can, will, and does occur.

Knowing what you know and knowing you know nothing

For everything I’ve learned during my lifetime, the number of things I don’t know could be staggering. Admittedly, many of the things I don’t know I neither need nor care to. Then, to add insult to injury, even among the things I know, there will be change.

When it comes to yourself, you change. Like it or not, tangibly and intangibly, you can, will, and do change. That’s the nature of life. It’s about growth, evolution, and constant motion. When you don’t grow and change, you shrink and stagnate. Certainly not in an either/or instantaneous sense, but that’s the inevitable outcome. When you don’t roll with change and growth, you accept shrinkage and stagnation.

Change can be scary because it’s the unknown. How you approach that is a choice. Fear and trepidation or excitement and anticipation? Loathing and upset or admiration and serenity? It might not seem like you have a choice, but you do.

It’s never black and white, and every situation will have variables you can’t account for. Knowing what you know, it’s important to recognize and acknowledge that you also know nothing. That’s because what you do and can know, does and will change.

The point of this is that you, in every way, also change. This can be scary and feel unwanted, but that’s a choice you get to make.

Change in and of itself is neutral

Often, people think change is bad. Then, they’re led to believe that change will ruin or destroy this, that, or the other thing. Look at how politicians and business leaders, in particular, love to weaponize fear of change to attempt to control people.

In truth, change in and of itself just is. It’s impartial, neutral, and not in any way, shape, or form out to get you. Yet, when you find comfort in any given thing, change can negatively impact that, which in turn can make you feel like it’s against you.

The truth is that change simply is. Once again, it’s the one and only constant in the entire universe.

Once you recognize, acknowledge, and work with this, change becomes something that you can work with more easily, even if you can’t control it. Because what you can and do control is in you.

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on UnsplashWorking with rather than against change

Applying this is a matter of assuming control over what you can control. In short, that’s you. More specifically, it’s your inner being. That comes down to your thoughts, feelings, intentions, positivity or negativity of approach, and actions.

That might not seem like much, but it’s everything. To gain this control means being here, now, in the present. When present, you apply active conscious awareness to see your inner thoughts, feelings, etc. Then, with mindfulness, you can take action and change anything therein that’s not to your liking.

You might not be able to change from one thing to another instantly. It may be necessary to change incrementally and use stepping stones from point A to point B. Yet when you apply mindfulness to this, you open the door to working with rather than against change.

So many elements of so-called conservative politicians are all about working against change. That creates unhealthy resistance. Why? Because you can’t undo what’s changed.

Note – not all resistance is unhealthy. When you take a stand against those who are fighting progress, diversity, inclusivity, and frankly reality, that’s not unhealthy. Unhealthy resistance tends to have little to nothing to do with you and your life, even when it feels like it does. Because let’s face it – people who are not you, striving, like you, to live their best possible life, aren’t actively working to mess you up or harm you in the process.

It all comes down to the choices and decisions that you make. Or not. When all is said and done, though you can’t control change, how you handle it is yours to control. But only for you and your life experience.

This is about empowerment

In the end, working with rather than against change comes down to empowerment. You don’t get that from any outside forces. Empowerment is within you.

Empowerment is a choice you get to make. When you choose to be mindful and actively consciously aware, you can control how you handle change for yourself. That might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but it’s not. When you’re empowered, that can do a lot for those around you. Because empowered people, genuinely empowered people, make other people feel empowered, too.

What you do to take control of what you can when change comes is a choice you get to make. And even if you choose wrong, unless that choice kills you, another choice will present itself. That, too, is part of the inevitability of change, but that’s potentially beneficial. If you choose for it to be such.

How do you approach change when it happens?

This is the seventh-hundred-fifteenth (715) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.

The post Is How You Handle Change Yours to Control? appeared first on The Ramblings of the Titanium Don.