HOW TO GO FROM RESISTING CHANGE TO EMBRACING CHANGE

Mastering the art of resilience does much more than restore you to who you once thought you were. Rather, you emerge from the experience transformed into a truer expression of who you were really meant to be.” -Carol Orsborn

Do you know that resilient people are able to look at change as an opportunity? Do you know why? Because they know how to derive meaning from failures and adversity. Making any kind of change in our lives involves breaking old habits that hold us back and building new habits that serve us better. But the comfort of the familiarity and the fear of the unknown could keep us from growing.

It’s natural to want to avoid painful emotions, but when we avoid them nothing changes. Moreover, new problems emerge by evading our pain. Author Satish Kumar explains it beautifully in her book The Buddha and the Terrorist, “Sister, pain is part of life. By accepting it, its intensity is reduced. Do not resist it. Resistance to pain brings tension and anxiety, anxiety leads to fear. Fear of pain is worse than pain itself. This pain will pass.” Most people are not willing to deal with short-term pain, even though that could mean cutting the chances of long-term advance.

A resilient mindset appreciates the effort to convert setbacks into future successes. Resilient people see that those challenges are leading them to higher levels of personal growth. They choose to work with uncomfortable emotions as they surface and understand that they’re signaling the next area of growth.

Here are 20 practices that facilitate resilience and support you to embrace change:

1. Choose to accept what’s happening
2. Understand who you are and where you want to be
3. Challenge the beliefs that are holding you back and put them in perspective
4. Become an observer and be receptive to feedback
5. Optimize your health and well-being
6. Set goals and work to achieve them
7. Spend time daydreaming about what reaching your goal would feel like
8. Take action to improve your situation and keep going despite difficulties
9. Ask yourself questions to discover the hidden opportunities behind the difficulties
10. Fully experience the present moment
11. Internalize that you have the ability to deal with life’s challenges
12. Feel worthy and don’t dwell on the negative
13. Look the support of family members and friends that are positive
14. Laugh frequently and have a good sense of humor
15. Help others or a cause
16. Use your creativity
17. Have faith and connect with something greater than you
18. Be a lifelong learner
19. Understand others and refrain from judging + blaming
20. Have positive expectations and be flexible

Truly living and growing requires change. Change usually involves some form of loss of the way things were at one time. We always have a choice. We can make our lives difficult by resisting change, or we can adapt and flow with it.

We can make our lives difficult by resisting change, or we can adapt and flow with it. Click To Tweet

These practices don’t alter what is happening in your life, but they can modify how well you cope and recover from setbacks. With every transition comes the opportunity to discover hidden resources and internal strengths.  Be aware of ways that you can influence your life in a positive way during change. Building resilience skills make this process manageable.

Do you know someone who could benefit from this? This could be a message that someone you love needs to read today, so please share on your favorite social media.