Resiliency Trumps Change

I recently spoke as a panelist at a community forum to address change & how to cope during these turbulent times.  This put me into some lingering thinking about change, and why this word provokes such anxiety and discomfort in people.  I found a beautiful reflection:
"Life is change.  Growth is optional.  Choose wisely." ~Karen Kaiser Clark

So this seems like common sense, yet we often meet change with heels dug deep and eyes closed tight.  Where is our wisdom at this time?  I have always believed that adapting to change with some grace is a sign of inner well-being, but I haven't always been the picture of grace through the changes in my life.  Some changes, as it turns out, had quite an undertow & I found myself sinking quickly.

In my life change has had many definitions.  As a child it was exciting and I was curious about it.  The next day full of all different things could not come soon enough. Then somehow as I grew, my excitement about change shrunk.  Change began to mean stress...stress that I could see and measure!
Luckily, more recently my definition of change is much like it was when I was a curious and trusting child.  I have learned again, or remembered, how to stay within myself in a way that allows the world to change as it will.

As simple as it sounds this is true, and here's how: The first thing you need to do is to humbly admit to yourself that you cannot control what is happening outside of you.  This leaves you with a new place to look, and the place that's left is inside you.  When you look there you'll see that you have innate resiliency that is buoyant and always available.  Introduce yourself and invite this new friend to stay for awhile! :) No seriously, it's time to remember that you have all the answers you need right where you are standing!  That fact is not dependent on anything that exists outside of you.  Change cannot touch this truth.

What's that you say?  You can't hear your inner wisdom and well being?  Don't worry, this happens to all of us every day, and there is a simple remedy.  Your personal thinking has gotten too loud and has been overused to an unhealthy degree.  You must shut it down, wait, and restart.  In other words, find a distraction, if one doesn't come wait for an insight, now restart with your awareness on a new string of thinking.  That's it, that's how to do it...rinse and repeat!

The other good news is that once you experiment with noticing your own resiliency you will automatically begin to see it in others, as well.  Now, this isn't the same as controlling your environment (which is where we started), but it does create an entirely new experience of it. Presto!  All you need to navigate through whatever change you're facing...and you had it all the time!  I encourage you to have fun with this. Remember, as this anonymous author states, "If you don't bend in the wind, you will break."  So may you enjoy the wind in your hair with no fear of breakage!