This Is How You Embrace Change

You don’t, at first.

You fight it because you’re human, because you’re used to the world and the way it is, because you’re terrified. You fight change because you’ve been told that change is scary, that change is difficult, that change hurts.

You’ve learned that sometimes it’s easier to stay in one place and accept rather than to do or say something different, than to move, than to become something else. All this is understandable. You’ve set a routine, you’re comfortable, complacent. But that is the best part about change, it fights against complacency. It makes you grow.

At first you don’t accept change. You can’t. But then you start, little by little, like a big toe dipped into the pool water. You see things in a new light for the first time, you become a little less terrified, a little less stuck in your ways.

You take baby steps. In small ways, you begin to embrace that your life is moving in a direction you never thought it would. You take each day, each hour as it comes. You breathe deeply. You remind yourself of who you have been, who you are. You remind yourself that despite the world swirling around you, you will still be that person, only stronger.

You find things that make you laugh. You remind yourself again and again that you still have the ability to laugh. No matter how upside-down your life is, you can still laugh. That is a blessing.

You close your eyes and you love more. You learn to forgive, to let go of what you cannot control. You think deeper. You remind yourself of the good you’ve had, the good you will have. You love—people, places, memories, things, adventures. You open your heart, slowly, peeking out from your shell and you see the world as something new. You see change as an opportunity and less of a roadblock. You realize, that no, life is not over. You are just beginning, again. Moving forward, circling, becoming new.

You acknowledge that this is part of the process. That life will never stay the same, but will always be growing, shifting, orbiting the sun bringing day and night. You know that life will have its consistencies, but that it is ultimately always moving. And you decide to accept this.

Then you begin to embrace change whole-heartedly. You smile in the face of fear. You make the conscious choice to say, yes. To say, this is change and this is okay.

And your life begins to shift more easily. You lessen the reins on what you simply cannot hold onto. You lean into the hope that what is coming will pave itself out, an open road ready for you to drive on, to take whatever curves and bends and backroads you choose. And you trust in the fact that change is indeed necessary, a part of your journey. It is this change that leads you, strengthens you, balances you, and molds you into the person you are. And this is good.