Change is an unstoppable, constant force. A reality, not a choice.
How we respond to change is our choice. Resisting change is a choice that has somehow become a prevailing mindset. Set in a belief that it is unwanted, unliked and difficult. Change is actually our most natural state of being. We are biologically programmed for change and like the hands spinning around the clock, sunrise, sunset and seasons; any sense of control is an illusion.
Acceptance is also a choice. A wonderfully enlightened choice we can make every day in all situations. Acceptance is the powerful choice to create joy and find peace in response to the consistent rhythmic changes of life and also the unexpected, disruptive changes blowing through. Like a force of nature, a storm system or a pleasant nourishing rain, we acknowledge, choose our response and apply our attitude of acceptance or resistance.
Nice to have this power, isn’t it? The choice of response – our attitude.
When change is understood as a positive natural element of growth and possibility, we find ourselves back in rhythm with our natural, biological programming; learning to walk, talk, read, play, socialize, work. We physically mature, grow and age and we have choices along the way. How we take care of ourselves through the years, how we find understanding, how we feel, how we spend our time and our choice in relationships. Such vast choices we possess. Time, change, aging and nature are not among them.
So, we choose well, right? For me that is not always the case, but I can always choose to change my mind, change my reaction, find my acceptance and reset my beliefs and intention.
The Power of You
If you were to create something new today, what would it be?
In stillness, I ponder what is no longer working, no longer true in my ways of doing things, how I treat others, my ambitions, and goals and my path to pursuing them. My belief system and all the parts and connectors that make it a whole.
I dream. Envisioning many streams pouring into one. The people I chose to journey with. The choices available, the alternative streams aligned with or apart from the mainstream. Like a plethora of multicolored ribbons flowing, near, around and through the other, intertwined in a brilliant flow, dancing and unfurling forward without entanglement. I have a choice to see and accept the realities of change.
With acceptance of the things I cannot change and great choices in vast possibilities available, I can alter my life and impact those around me.
I have choice. As if all the other ribbons swirling along my side were clearing the path, supporting, encouraging and energizing, as we accept the rhythms of change, combining with magnificent force, contributing to, enhancing and forever changing the mainstream.
Envisioning the shift, the transformation of the mainstream, as the colorful, unique and oddly woven fringe of the alternative streams infuses new life into the dogged sameness of the old river.
If you could create something new. Unique to you, what would it be? More of the same? A version of old? Would you accept change? Will you make good choices?
Wonderful fuel for reflection, Mike!
Mike, thank you for writing and sharing your article. Change whether or not we are to accept it or admit to it is inevitable. Children can be big resistors of change especially when it takes them away from an environment they have become accustomed to. Some adults (i.e. me) do not always react well or adapt to change but do have the ability to adapt. In adult life, there are changes that we consciously make. It is not unheard of for these changes to be reversed. The unsettled world we are living in now is a prime example of change.