Paths Are Meant to Change and Evolve
Everything changes and evolves, after all.
Life is seldom stagnant for long. Sure, you might get several years where nothing much changes, but small things can, will, and do. Change is inevitable because it’s the one and only constant in the universe. Everything, be it person, place, or thing, changes. The majority of that simply is, and is neither good nor bad.
A lot of people find this hard to swallow. Some cling to what they know, the familiar, the certain, the comfortable, with a death grip. That creates a lot of unnecessary conflict on multiple levels for people. Then, outside forces can make it even worse by taking advantage of the fear of change (which, let’s be honest, is a fear of suffering because of change) and creating derision, conflict, and unnecessary problems.
What can you do about this? Nothing. When it comes to the big picture, external factors and happenings, there’s little to nothing you can do about them. What you do control is yourself. Your life, your inner mindset/headspace/psyche self. Since only you exist in your head, heart, and soul, you alone can choose or decide who, what, where, how, and why to be.
End goals are important, but more important are the paths we take to them. Along the paths we take, we make new discoveries, have unexpected experiences, and might even find that the path we’ve chosen needs to change. Fortunately, paths are meant to change and evolve.
To direct, guide, choose, and decide your path requires active conscious awareness – i.e., mindfulness. The work begins with familiarizing yourself with yourself.
Who, what, where, how, and why are you?
Until I began to ask these questions of myself, I accepted outside perspectives. I frequently let the impressions and beliefs of others inform me about who, what, where, how, and why I was – and even should be.
The truth is that you, and only you, can answer the above questions. That’s because only you are ultimately in your mind, body, and spirit.
It’s important to recognize that who, what, where, how, and why you are isn’t just physical. It’s also mental, emotional, and spiritual. Everyone is a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual being. This, however, is not something everyone understands because the physical gets the majority of attention when it comes to your health, wellness, and wellbeing.
Everyone has a physical body; that’s the easiest element to understand because it’s tangible. But you’re also intangible, and that’s where your mental body (thoughts and ideas), emotional body (feelings and instincts), and spiritual body (self-awareness and drive/motivation) exist. (Note that your spiritual body is not about faith and religion, it’s about your understanding of your self, your values, and subconscious beliefs).
When you take any given path in life, it’s not just a physical act. It’s a holistic act of mind, body, and spirit that encompasses your whole being. Because of the ineffability of change, paths change and evolve – just like you do.
Paths change and evolve just like you do
Looking back at who I was in my 20s, and the ideas for the life I desired, I made certain choices about the paths I took. Many of those choices, I realize now, were not to actively choose. Often, I took the path of least resistance, stayed in my comfort zone (which wasn’t comfortable but largely stable), and then wondered why I felt lost and uncertain.
The paths I wanted in my 20s included fame, fortune, children, stability, and certainty. My sights were set on being a great stage director or radio DJ, expanding on what I did in college. Yet I often didn’t choose the necessary paths because I was too scared to face change and restart in new places, make new friends, and be immersed in the unknown.
The life I built, moving into my 30s, involved being largely disconnected from myself. It took therapy and self-examination to learn who, what, where, how, and why I was and how I’d gotten there. The paths I desired changed, taking a less goal-oriented, all-or-nothing approach to developing more appreciation for the paths themselves.
In my 40s, because I’d learned to better understand myself, I tweaked the paths I was taking. Today, in my 50s, I’m actively working on knowing myself better to choose my paths and enjoy them as I traverse them. Like I’ve evolved and changed, so have my paths evolved and changed. What I desired in my 20s is not what I desire now. And that’s not just okay, it’s good. In so many ways, I’m not at all who I was then.
This is where a fluidity of mindset and flexibility become essential. Yet that often runs counter to the collective consciousness.
Paths can’t be traversed again
Too many elements of our culture and society are hyper-focused on turning back the clock, restoring what they think has been lost, and going back to a supposedly better, happier, more fulfilling time – that never was.
The entire MAGA movement is built on this, at least on the surface. A closer look shows the dark and seedy underbelly of a cult hoodwinked by the ultimate grifters. The movement’s founders couldn’t care less about the perceived slights they prey on; they just exploit their followers’ vulnerability to manipulate them and use them as a front for their unsavory and unkind bullshit.
No matter how hard you might try, no matter how much you desire it, you can’t go back to the past. There is no redoing it, undoing it, or doing it over. The past has come and gone. All that you can genuinely do with the past is learn from it.
Likewise, the future is unwritten. While you can choose, here and now, paths to take to get there, they’ll seldom be without obstacles, challenges, and detours. Because change is the only constant in the universe, and largely random and outside your control, your path can and will change, too.
Sometimes that’s your choice. Other times, not so much. Once you accept that you can’t redo, undo, or alter the past, you can be more present, here and now. When you’re more present, you gain conscious awareness – mindfulness – of your life. That opens the way for you to choose and decide paths to walk for yourself.
This takes work
There is no One True Way, no set time, no guarantees. What’s more, since we’re all only human, we’ll choose poorly, get shit wrong, and potentially get hurt, maybe physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or some or all of the above.
Fortunately, paths are meant to change and evolve. Even if the path is made of stone, it can be broken by things that are dropped on it, roots breaking in from below, water pitting it, and more. Even a fluid path can be broken by a boulder, boat, or swimming mammal in its way.
One of the advantages of being human is that you can form habits, rote, and routine, to free your mind, body, and spirit to do other, more important things. And like paths, habits can change and evolve. So bad habits can be altered. But it all takes work and effort.
The work tends to begin with becoming actively, consciously aware of yourself in the present. That’s done by asking and answering, here and now, questions like:
- What am I thinking?
- What am I feeling?
- How am I feeling?
- What do I intend here?
- Is my approach (to this, that, or the other thing) positive or negative?
- What am I doing/not doing?
When you recognize and acknowledge these, you can change them. That’s how you choose and decide on any given paths in life. From there, you open yourself to experiencing more and living on your preferred terms. Easy? Often, no. Worthwhile? Absolutely.
Are you seeing how paths are meant to change and evolve, like everything changes and evolves along the way, and that you’re empowered to make something of that?
This is the seventh-hundred-fifty-fifth (755) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share my philosophy because I desire to make a difference in the world and help as many people as I can to find their empowerment with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to share and/or repost where it might do good for you and others.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.
Also, please check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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