Accepting change

Change, it keeps coming, no matter how many times it has come before, it comes again. For change is life and resisting change is resisting the very essential element that life is made from.

And Change, it will push and pull from within, force its way and transform. Does a worm long to become a butterfly? What choice does it have?

Change is so scary, mysterious, it shakes us, makes us feel unease, and yet it is so intriguing. We long for it when it is gone, we miss it when we feel dry, calling for it to come back again. And then it does and we dread it, as if it was not us that wanted it so much.

It comes with all its might, like a storm, strong and so determent.

Change, whether it is personal, emotional or physical; collective, political, or cultural, is always daunting.

It comes up, swelling like a wave, from within you can feel it growing, you can feel its energy, its momentum, not sure how big or how strong it will be, a tingling feeling spreads, goosebumps, excitement mixed with anxiety creeps and fills you. You want that wave to break already and yet to enjoy the rise. Nothing will stop it, it rolls and all you can really do is choose to enjoy it for it is taking you on a ride. How small you can choose to feel, how so very helpless and needy, so broken and lost, in the mess of powers and elements and energies. There you are, you can surf it and flow with it all the way through or you can resist and let it make you feel so weak and hopeless, so out of control, such a victim of the situation.

But in each and every single situation there YOU are, there is your choice, your unique attitude and point of view, your own voice, your own force, your stamina and all the wisdom and strength that you have gathered, there you are, face to face with it all. There you are feeling your own weight, as gravity pulls you, as the times move you. That change that is so inevitable, so ingrained into life. That which as much as you what to fight and reject, you simply cannot.

If we look at our own mind, the flow of our thoughts, that river of consciousness, we see how change is the very nature of the fundamental way we experience ourselves. Seeing consciousness as a river or flow is not something new, it is metaphor made by William James (often refereed as the father of American Psychology), over a decade ago.

Anyone that has ever tried to sit meditation has had the personal experience of their own mind, as an uncontrollable stream, which changes, moves, jumps around and transforms. If we dare to look back and self-explore, we may find that ideas, emotions and strong beliefs that we once had, have completely changes. Even convictions that we were totally identified with at some point, when we look back after a while and notice how much that have change, how we have changed, how our perspective changes. And, if we are lucky, our understanding evolved and grow.

Change is so frightening for it always threatens the statue-quo, which no matter how challenging may be, is familiar to us. Giving us a sense of stability and safety. However, let us remember, that the only way to grow is to allow change, and with no change or flow, we are left with nothing but a stagnated swamp.