How Do We Learn to Embrace Change Rather than Fear It?
We need to work more with mindfulness to embrace change.
There are two topics I cover repeatedly. Fear and change.
Why? Because we live in a fear-based society and change is the only constant in the Universe. What’s more, fear of change drives many, many people and the things they do.
Accepting the inevitability of change goes a long way towards learning to embrace it. But that’s not easy to do because of how fear is so broadly exploited.
What do I mean by that? Fear is everywhere we turn. Living in a fear-based society, it gets abused to cause us to make choices that don’t necessarily serve us; buy things we don’t need; choose and accept “leaders” from a shallow pool comprised largely of slime; create artificial lack, scarcity, insufficiency, and other limitations to direct, control, and otherwise disempower.
Change in and of itself is neither good nor bad. It just is. The impression of good or bad it makes tends to be based in and on our individual beliefs, values, biases, and the like.
The biggest problem we face with embracing change rather than fearing it is recognizing that you can’t take fear away from anyone else. We control only ourselves. Thus, we can’t make anyone else lose their fear.
What’s more – we’re up against certain groups, individuals, organizations, and the like constantly weaponizing fear for dominance, control, and disempowering the masses.
That only means it’s not easy. But it is totally doable. And worthwhile.
How can we embrace change rather than fear it?
Start with yourself
To embrace change – you need to begin with yourself.
How does that work? First, there are a few important truths you need to acknowledge.
- Change is the only constant in the Universe
- There will always be change – and it’s not good or bad in and of itself
- You can only control change within yourself
- Change cannot be undone or redone – you cannot go back to what was
- Fearing change is a choice
Once you recognize and acknowledge these truths – you can choose to embrace change.
Embracing change is not the same as accepting it. Instead, embracing change is seeing that it happens – slow or fast – and not resisting it in ways that are detrimental to you or the world around you.
For example – white supremacists fear people of color changing the world they think they live in. However – they don’t recognize that the world they think exists doesn’t – and never has, frankly. They resist reality – and cause hurt and harm in the process. It could be argued this is from not embracing change. Thus, we see resistance detrimental to themselves and the world around them.
The other flaw in white supremacist, alt-right, and similar logic is control of others. You and I cannot control anyone else in the world. Each of us controls ourselves alone.
And that scares some people. Because they feel that lack of control – and fail to recognize they have never had such control. Nobody has that control.
That’s why the only way to embrace change is to start with yourself. Because you only can control change for yourself and your life experience.
How do you embrace change?
Once you recognize and acknowledge those truths – and see you can control change only for yourself – the best way to embrace change is mindfulness.
Everyday mindfulness is knowing your conscious mind. Conscious awareness of your mindset/headspace/psyche self.
To practice mindfulness, you need to be present in the here and now. Then you need to recognize your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
That recognition – in the present – tells you where, what, why, how, when, and mostly who you are. But it also provides the path to your subconscious and ego.
Your subconscious mind is where your habits, beliefs, and values live. This is one place where resistance to change lives, too.
Your ego tends to be the most change-adverse. It’s your ego that is your self-image – both within and how your project without. Why is the ego change-adverse? Because your ego is all about comfort. Change tends to leave comfort zones behind. Your ego – when not in check via your conscious mind – tends to exploit what it considers “comfort” by tapping into your subconscious beliefs, values, habits – and fears.
Mindfulness puts the conscious mind in the driver’s seat. That takes control out of your ego’s hands and lets you embrace change.
No, it’s not that simple – it takes practice, effort, and constant work. Also – embracing change is not the same as accepting it.
What does it mean to embrace change?
Important distinction – embracing change is not accepting change. It’s all about recognizing that it always happens and is the only universal constant.
Further – change by itself tends to be impartial and neutral. It’s only when people direct it or try to direct and redirect it that we run into most issues change causes.
Embracing change recognizes that it’s always going to happen. And when you recognize this – you embrace what you can and can’t do about it. And that is what embracing change is all about.
The only change I can control is within me. Specifically – how I handle and react to change.
When things happen outside my control – like an accident, relationship ending, job loss, and so on – I am not going to be in control. At least, not at first. I will have a visceral reaction to that sudden and unwanted change.
How I react isn’t how you might. It could be deep sadness, fear, anger, rage, annoyance, self-loathing – or any other negatives or combination of them – depending on the change and its impact. But after that initial reaction – I control what comes next.
This is where embracing change plays in. I recognize and acknowledge it happened – and that I can’t undo or redo it. Thus, it’s up to me to work with it and embrace what I can and cannot do about it.
We need to work more with mindfulness to embrace change. When we do – we are better able to control our life experiences.
When you embrace change, rather than fear it, you become an example for others. Then, when they see you living without that intangible fear and working with change – they get inspired to emulate you.
And that is how we can individually work to improve the world.
What do you do with change?
This is the five-hundred and twenty-fourth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using 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.
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The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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