How to embrace change

Change is scary.

Did you know that there are somewhere around 40 trillion cells in your body? And did you know that those cells are constantly dying and being replaced? Some people estimate that every one of the cells in your body are replaced every 7-10 years. This may or may not be a correct estimate but the truth is your body is constantly in flux. It is constantly changing.

Some people are more accepting of change than others. Some people can wake up in the Untied States and go to sleep in Japan and not bat an eye. Other people freak out when the corner store is out of their brand of deodorant. People have different change thresholds (so don’t judge others by yours), but all of us have been a little apprehensive about change at one time or another. I know I have.

Change is uncomfortable.

Change means death. Sometimes it is the death of an idea or a dream. Sometimes it is the death of the way things have been or the death of a certain time period in life. Sometimes it is a literal death. But death isn’t an ending, it is merely a transition from one thing into something else.

Even though our bodies are constantly changing there is something deep down in the human DNA that resists change. There is something in the human mind that is apprehensive about the unknown.

However…

Change is necessary for growth.

You can’t grow without changing. Sometimes people change for the better and sometimes they change the other way but we are always changing.

C.S. Lewis said: “Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.”

You are going to change. To embrace change means that instead of resisting change you take control by making good choices and changing for the better. Change is not just necessary for growth but it is also an opportunity for growth if you will let it be.

You cannot become something better by remaining what you are.

Sometimes you have to let go of something good in order to be able to grasp something great.

It takes faith to change. It takes courage to change. But life is partly about knowing when to hold on and when to let go. And sometimes opening our hands and letting go of something is necessary to free our hands to be given something better.

Embracing change means having enough faith to realize that sometimes a page must be turned and a chapter ended in order to reach the next phase of life. That doesn’t mean you don’t sometimes mourn the change. At times you will miss the old normal and at times you will look back and remember an old part of your life with affection. But then you look forward with hope to the next phase of life.

Change is required for growth.

Embracing change is an act of faith.

Embracing change takes courage.

So don’t be afraid to let go of something good in order to be able to receive something great.