How to accept change in life and embrace it positively

Change is everywhere. Change is the only constant in life. 

From the time of our birth till death, we go through constant changes in life. But in general, people are resistant to change since they are afraid to lose control.

And we also like to stay inside our comfort zone even when not all is well inside our comfort zones. We like to battle with the known toxicity rather than the unknown possible positive changes.

Is change something to be afraid of?

How will your life change if you learn to embrace change every time it comes uninvited?

By the way, not all changes are uninvited or unexpected. When some changes happen, we know they were going to happen anyway.

Let’s take a look at why changes happen and how embracing change can benefit us. 

Why do changes happen in life?

Change is the only constant in life.

Change is a way of life. The sooner we learn to make peace with this fact, the better. 

Because if we want it or not, change is inevitable and sometimes changes need to be made deliberately for our lives to move forward. 

It is “change” that makes our life move forward. Or else, life always stays the same and we never achieve the growth we are meant to have here. 

The world is always in motion. Seasons keep changing and even though the same seasons repeat themselves at the same intervals without fail, forward motion is happening all the time. 

Plants and animals grow, age, fulfill their duties and die. 

It’s “change” that makes life exciting and worth living. It is the unknown nature of life that gives us hope because we know that things could turn around any time and that our life will not always stay the same. 

Even if we are going through good times or bad times, knowing that the future is unknown helps us. 

How?

It helps us to not take the good times for granted and enjoy every second of it while it lasts.

And as for bad times, we know that no matter how hard it is, we know that it’s not going to last and good times will come again. 

As we ride through the smooth and hard parts of the waves that fill our life, we laugh, cry, fear, and experience a variety of emotions before we die. It’s part of living as a human and something we can’t avoid. 

And when you think about it, that’s what makes life interesting, right?

Without changes, and without laughter or pain, our life would be bland and boring. There is no fun today and no excitement tomorrow. 

What are the benefits of change?

If you feel disheartened or worried about the changes that are currently happening in your life or going to happen, it will help you to learn how change benefits us.

• Change helps us to grow
• Change gives us opportunities to face new situations that help us to develop confidence and become resilient
• Change helps us to improve our personality and change our perspectives on life
• Change helps us to experience new things and thus make us get out of our comfort zone more often forcing us to grow
• Change gives us new opportunities and makes life exciting
• Change makes us flexible and teaches us to adapt to new situations

Now that we know how change helps us and make our life better, let’s see how to stay strong when we face changes in life- both, expected and unexpected changes. 

Because no matter how much we say that change is good, it’s hard to go through it too. 

HOW TO ACCEPT change in life AND stop being scared of it

1. ACCEPT THE SITUATION

Changes happen expectedly and unexpectedly. Expected or planned changes can buy us some time for preparation.

But there can be changes that happen so suddenly that you might have to experience painful days and have a tough time coping with them.

Give yourself some time to come to terms with it. You may have to go through a mourning period where you have to experience all kinds of emotions. 

Let the emotions come out and make space for them. 

It’s normal to feel sad and a sense of loss when you think about your old life. Seek support and if possible, take a few days off to find your strength. It’s important to learn to deal with the transition phase before you fully start living the new reality. 

So take all your time and ask for all the support you need. 

2. HAVE TRUST IN YOUR JOURNEY

They say all change is for your highest good. Though it may not seem like it, all changes lead to some positive change in your life. 

People who have experienced the loss of loved ones often talk about how that experience changed them. 

Such experiences teach us a lot of things. They teach us to adapt to new situations and live with the pain of loss, which eventually makes us stronger to face life. 

We become more sensitive. And the people who have experienced losses can also be seen serving others more as they know the pain and can empathize with others more easily. 

Thus every loss or every change is planted in our life at each interval for a purpose. They teach us so many things and helps us become better people. How we become better is dependent on how we cope with the change. 

But when changes happen, what doesn’t help is asking “why”. 

Why it had to happen now?

Why did it happen to me and not others?

Though such thoughts are normal, it doesn’t help our journey forward to constantly dwell on such thoughts.

We have to have a certain trust in the reason and be hopeful that it will serve us somehow in the future. 

And the beliefs you have, have the power to change your life. 

3. EMBRACE THE UNKNOWN

It’s easier said than done. Most of us are afraid of the unknown and therefore are resistant to change. 

We fear the unknown because anything can happen to us there and at the same time.

Even if it is for good, we hesitate to accept change because human beings love structure and routine and hate to change it. 

But I have often experienced in my life that the “unknown” I feared so much was not that scary at all, once I went through it. And that my worries were something that my mind made up. Truth be told, most of the things I worried about didn’t happen anyway. 

If we are not willing to embrace the unknown, we may miss out on lots of good things that life has kept in store for us. 

I used to try to control my life and my days as much as I could as a person suffering my anxiety. I couldn’t bear to think about any event in my day going out of my control. Yet they always did.

Finally, in a hard way, I learned that we truly have no control over anything other than our thoughts. 

If an undesirable event happens, I now know to quickly adjust my thoughts to react to them positively. Well, it may not be possible a hundred percent of the time, but we keep getting better with practice. 

As you slowly learn to embrace the unknown you will slowly develop faith in yourself that you can live with whatever happens in your life as you slowly lose your fear of the unknown.

Then you anticipate change rather than fearing it.

4. TRY NEW EXPERIENCES AND BECOME RESILIENT

Another way to learn to become resilient and tougher is to be open to new experiences. 

Say “yes” more to the things you feel like will bring a positive change in your life, even though the thought of doing them makes you uncomfortable. 

The discomfort there is trying to serve you. It is just your ego whose job is to “keep you safe” and warn you when you wander into unknown territories. 

Our ego doesn’t like it when we do things that we don’t do normally. But learn to ignore this small voice, trust your higher self and take a leap of faith. 

When you try new experiences you learn to face discomfort and grow. Then when a time for change comes, you will be stronger and you learn to stop being afraid of change.

5. ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR FEARS

One of the reasons change is difficult to accept is because of the range of emotions we feel when we confront change. And we don’t like feeling negative emotions right?

It’s important to embrace your feelings and accept that they are there. Acknowledge your fears, but stop yourself from being tunnel-visioned. 

Our mind has a way of bringing up possible scenarios and fear them. 

But I have learned over the years that most of the things we fear don’t happen and usually, something good comes from change. 

I recently learned how to embrace emotions from one of my spiritual teachers. She would say, “When you feel emotions, give them a name and acknowledge that they have come to “visit”. 

Like for example, if you feel fear when you anticipate a change, you can say “Fear has come to visit”. When you feel sad, you can say,” Sadness has come to visit”, etc.

It has really helped me to acknowledge my emotions and not be afraid of negative emotions. Because when you say they have come to visit, you know that they are not here to stay and that they will go away after a brief period of interaction with you. 

It also helps you to be not being consumed by emotions when they come. 

You can write down your thoughts in a journal, which helps so much. Journaling helps to get it all out from your head onto paper which frees your head a lot. 

6. LOOK AT HOW FAR YOU HAVE COME

When you come face-to-face with hard experiences, it sometimes helps to look back and count the number of times when you have faced similar experiences or worse. 

When you think about how much you have evolved as a person and how you overcame many difficult situations, you will feel stronger and have more confidence to face the upcoming changes. 

I hope this post inspired you to look at change positively and gave you hope. I hope that this helps you to stay positive to face your fears and embrace the unknown.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

More reading:

• How to stop being stuck and get going with your life
• 10 effective tips to build belief in yourself and achieve your dreams
• 20 toxic things to remove from your life to live peacefully
• How to stay productive during a crisis
• How to stay patient during tough times

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