|
How Change Feels
Sometimes you can eliminate something you dislike or incorporate something you love into your life and it is pure relief. However, most change comes with discomfort and even pain.
If you change your diet, you may feel better in some aspects, but you have let go of a previous pleasure or coping strategy and you will feel loss even if the benefits outweigh it. If you leave your job for a better work life balance, wage, or commute; you still have the discomfort of a learning curve and navigating new people and procedures.
And for the very specific change of no longer participating in a destructive relationship, you will always have pain. So, when something needs to be adjusted in your life, it can feel unnerving to initiate any kind of change. Often, staying stuck feels like the simpler choice to the unknown or anticipated pain. You may even have grown up hearing a saying about the devil that you know being better than the one you don’t.
However, in Christ, we are more than conquerors. We don’t need to settle for either. Romans 8:37
When the day arrives where you know something must change—first, realize that you cannot do the same thing over and over and expect different results. Identical routines and interactions will produce identical outcomes.
Second, don’t fear how change might feel. You will know when you are ready because the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change.
Maybe it is someone else in your life who needs change. If this is the case, remember the soil of their heart must be ready to receive the seed before it will be able. Brokenness isn’t always enough to make people willing to change. Sometimes people are not ready to be honest with themselves. Additionally, it can feel overwhelming to them.
Expectations that you cannot control, because they depend on others, are illogical. Recognizing and releasing unrealistic expectations for other people is a crucial element for gaining greater mental and emotional health.
If you are able, think of the catalyst that brought great change to your life, and share it with someone.
|
