Recognizing Positivity in Impermanence
Change is inevitable, and impermanence is reality.
The one and only constant in the Universe is change.
Change can, will, and does occur all the time. No two moments are the same. Alike, maybe, but the same? No. That’s how frequently change occurs.
You might not believe it. But because people tend to resist, combat, and overall won’t accept change and the reality of it – tons of conflict on many levels is the result.
A great deal of this is based on ignoring or denying the reality of change and impermanence.
You might not be familiar with impermanence – but it’s a useful notion to know.
For example – Buddhism embraces impermanence.
Impermanence is defined by dictionary.com as:
Noun
the fact or quality of being temporary or short-lived.
Why is it good to recognize and embrace impermanence? Think of it this way – if the Universe is nearly 14 billion years old, the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and the average human lifespan is 80 years – human life is distinctly impermanent.
During the span of your life, people, places, things, experiences, and everything else you can imagine will come and go. Good, bad, or otherwise – nothing lasts forever.
Embracing this truth can be empowering and massively positive because it opens you to handling when things go badly.
Everyone has bad days
Nobody at all has good days all the time. It’s simply not possible.
Everyone will lose jobs, have relationships end, lose loved ones, get hurt physically and/or mentally, stub their toe on something, and have other negative, unwanted, undesirable happenings and experiences.
Some of these seem bigger and more impactful than others. And they will be. That’s partially due to attachment and comfort zones.
Attachment is when you are unable and/or unwilling to let go of something. It might be seemingly small – like a favorite mug. Or feel more important – like a loved one. If the mug is broken or the loved one dies, attachment will cause any pain and suffering from the loss to be especially impactful.
Likewise – comfort zones are places of extreme familiarity and the impression of stability that might not truly be comfortable. It could be a home, a job you find to be meh but don’t hate, or an amazing or abusive relationship. It’s familiar, known, and thus a comfort zone because outcomes and experiences with it are predictable and seemingly stable.
Until they’re not.
When a comfort zone or an attachment becomes associated with a connection to people, places, and/or things – troubles and bad experiences with them related to the inevitability of change – increase the bad, the pain, and the negative.
You can’t avoid bad days, negative experiences, or pain. But you can lessen them to one degree or another.
Recognizing impermanence
Everything and everyone you know changes. It’s a constant, a given, a universal fact.
However, the speed of change is hugely variable.
Some change is glacially slow. Personalities tend to fall under this. Someone once kind and generous can slowly and unexpectedly change to selfish and miserly. Chances are, something has changed for them that’s evoked this – and you just missed the signs along the way, so it seemed incredibly slow.
Some change is abrupt and instantaneous. A car accident injuring you, winning big in a casino, an explosion, a crush unexpectedly kissing you. One minute, things are this way, and then KA-POW – now they’re another way. Good, bad, indifferent – change happened and was unmistakable.
Slow or fast, change can, will, and does occur. All the time. Thus, nothing in your life – nothing you know, feel, believe, or value – is unchangeable.
That’s impermanence. And recognizing impermanence opens you to more easily roll with the punches in the face of change and its inevitability.
Why? Because since impermanence recognizes that everything everywhere changes – you empower yourself to be better able to work with and through change.
This is not a cure-all for negativity and bad happenings. No such thing exists. But when you recognize impermanence – you’re more capable of an easier recovery and moving forward when change throws you off.
Why is this a positive?
The simple reason is that impermanence means the bad, negative, unpleasant things that happen will pass.
Today might be a bad day. But it WILL change. Tomorrow is new, different, and has the potential to be something better.
Even a string of negative happenings are not permanent. They can and will change. That’s why impermanence is positive. Because though negative experiences are unavoidable – they will pass. Change will alter them.
Recognizing the positivity in impermanence strengthens you. It empowers you to actively reduce attachments and comfort zones and embrace change more. Can’t avoid it, can’t undo it – but you can decide how to resist it, roll with it, or change it again.
That’s why recognizing impermanence is a positive. And that can go a long way towards empowering you to have, do, and be all that you can. And you’re worthy and deserving of that.
Recognizing the positivity in impermanence isn’t hard
It’s all about working with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, and intentions to direct your actions.
When you recognize and acknowledge that change is inevitable, and that it can, will, and does occur – you begin to see impermanence in all aspects of life. Knowing that nothing you know is permanent, you can seek and find change, as well as recognize that a bad day or experience today will change and be different tomorrow.
This empowers you – and in turn, your empowerment can empower others around you.
Taking an approach to positivity and negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way to open more dialogue. With a broader dialogue, you can explore and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.
Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.
The better aware you’re of yourself in the now, the more you can do to choose and decide how your life experiences will be. When that empowers you, it can spread to those around you to their empowerment.
Don’t you think that’s a worthwhile endeavor to explore and share?
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
This is the four hundred-and-ninety-first entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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