Dancing With Change
Diving into uncertainty and newness
Dear Alchemist,
Today I want to talk to you about change.
Change has been on my mind a lot recently.
My wife and I have been planning to move from Nevada to New York for a couple of months. We pack up the POD on Thursday, and if all goes well we’ll be hitting the road with our dog and two cats on Saturday.
In the past, big change, like moves, would have had me anxious and concerned.
Change can be scary, for sure.
As humans, we take comfort in the familiar. Change represents uncertainty and newness, which can leave us feeling off balance and out of our element.
“What if the new situation is a net worse situation for me?”
“What if I don’t like it?”
These are all natural feelings. But this time around I’ve opted for a different approach to change.
Instead of being afraid or concerned, I’m dancing with the change.
Dance With Change, Don’t Fight it
Change is going to happen in our lives whether we like it or not. Unless you sit alone in an empty room staring at the wall for eternity, something in your life will change eventually.
And that change could be big.
Our natural tendency is to fight change.
Why? Because to our mind, change represents a threat, an unknown, and we naturally tend to avoid the unknown.
It’s in our instinct.
Instead, we must dance with change.
What do I mean by dance?
When change presents itself, rather than resist it, we can flow with it. By flowing with change, we no longer try to control or stop it, but instead accept that it’s happening and see it as an exciting part of life.
“What if the new situation is the best thing that ever happened to me?”
“What if I absolutely love this change?”
When we see change not as a confrontation, but as a delicate and fun dance, our whole perspective on the newness of it all evolves.
It’s much more fun to dive into the change with excitement and surrender.
Appreciating What Was and What Will Be
Even though we go through change, this isn’t to say that we can’t appreciate and even mourn the loss of what was, what we are changing from.
With our move, I will miss things about living in Reno: our evening walks along the Truckee river, the access to Lake Tahoe and skiing, the proximity to Burning Man, my weekly yoga classes, some restaurants, to name a few.
I appreciate and am grateful that I had the experiences I had in my time here.
And, I’m also appreciative and grateful for this big change of moving to New York!
When one door closes, another door opens.
If you can see life as a series of doors continuously closing and opening, then you start to get excited about the change and the chance to experience something new.
Final Thoughts
Change can be scary, but it can also be exciting and fun.
Change represents the Great Adventure of your life.
Like music, change is what makes life interesting. If life was one long droning tone, like an endless fog horn, it would be boring and horrible.
Instead, allow your life to be a dynamic symphony, with twists, turns, highs, and low, and surprises along the way.
Dance to the symphony of changes in life and you will live a life that is filled with excitement, opportunity, and beauty.
What’s a change you’ve been dancing with lately? Let me know in the comments below.
Until next week (when we’ll be halfway between Denver and Omaha!),
Kris
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