They say that the only certainty in life is ‘death and taxes,’ and whilst no one can argue with that – we think there’s more to it.
We think this well-known saying should read ‘the only certainty in life is death, taxes…. and change.’
For just as surely as the tax man will have his cut and one day your number will be called, the journey of life is unpredictable and like it or loathe it, IT IS littered with change.
Sound familiar? Yes we thought so too.
Haven’t we all been comfortably settled in smoking jacket and velvet slippers when the rug has been unceremoniously tugged from under our feet? As John Lennon so aptly sang, ‘Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.’
And yet the irony is that, although change is part and parcel of life’s rich journey, many of us hate it. And sometimes even compromise our health and sanity trying to avoid it. We want to hold things tightly and remain in the comfort zone of permanence.
You’d think that after a while we’d get the hang of it, we’d learn to roll with the punches and be open to this strange bedfellow in life. But no – no matter how often life throws us a curveball we tend to remain uncomfortable with change.
So what to do?
There isn’t a magic answer – there never is – believe us we’ve looked! But there is one very powerful tool at your disposal and that’s your attitude. Very few of us realise how important our attitude is in determining how well we navigate the highs, and more importantly the lows, of life.
You can choose to despise change and rail against its arrival or you can set your modus operandi to a much more useful setting – acceptance.
In our experience, the moment you shift your focus from resisting change to accepting it something important happens.
Accepting change empowers you. It allows you to move into the driver’s seat of your own life. Instead of feeling out of control, hard done by or victimised, give yourself permission to flow with the way of things.
Instead of wasting your time and energy fighting the inevitable, accepting change will help you think more clearly, harness your energy and work more effectively with what is taking place.
‘That’s really hard!’ we hear you shout. And, ‘Yes,’ we shout back. ‘Sometimes it is.’ Nevertheless, it is the most proactive approach you can take.
Even if you are unable to get your head around the concept of accepting what has happened, being open to the possibility of acceptance is a great start.
And no matter how hard the ride is, armed with the power of hindsight it is often very easy to see why things had to happen.
Which of us hasn’t learnt, grown and evolved from disaster? Often the darkest moments turn out to be the best thing that could have happened to us – we just couldn’t see that at the time. Hindsight and the bigger picture are hard to see when our heads are down, our thoughts downtrodden and our hearts filled with tears.
So for what it’s worth, the next time life pulls a fast one on you, take a deep breath, shrug your shoulders and flow with the way of things.
Namaste
Fiona and Gavin
Click to link to our ‘Flow with the way of things’ t-shirt collection
