Are you scared of change?

It seems that humans find it hard to deal with the idea of change. Some of course find this more difficult than others. However, I think at one point or another in our lives we will all fight change, when we often need it to win the battle.

It is strange how we can all be so hypocritical about one idea depending on how we are feeling. For example, we sometimes get bogged down in our every day lives, bored with routine, stuck in the same pattern and so we welcome change. We plan a night out to the theatre, bake a cake, or meet up with old friends, just to create something different. These small changes are new and so simply alter our daily lives enough to keep us content. Yet, when changes occur on a larger scale we can start to feel uneasy and therefore afraid. This is because we are always naturally scared of the unknown.

Changes often occur as a result of our behaviour. Relationships break down because one person or both people change, whether emotionally, physically or spiritually. Their desires and wishes change and therefore their needs change. We can sometimes change without knowing it. We start to make decisions and observations that we would not normally and that is when we learn more about ourselves. However hard this process may be, we must wait for the next change to occur, so we can reap the benefits by learning something new, 'Our only security is our ability to change.'John Lilly

I am going to graduate in a few months and that is extremely scary. Leaving the safety of education for the first time, having been safely cocooned in a world of tasks, rules and deadlines for the last sixteen years is daunting to say the least. A certain amount of excitement is present too, however the change comes with a price. I must leave the independent life and friends I have acquired over the last three years and go back, even for a short time, to the life I had before. This will be difficult, as I have now changed as a person and will adapt differently to certain things and people. How I choose do deal with this change will in some way shape the rest of my life.

By definition, to change is 'to make different in some way'. We often associate different with negativity as it is opposed to normality. There are many debates about where normality exists at all, as how can we define what is normal? We can however always easily define a change, as it is immediately out of the ordinary disguised as a crease in the fabric, a chink in our armour or an ornament out of place.

What we need to understand is that all change is healthy. For us to evolve and grow we need to adapt to change, deal with it, embrace it and learn from it. Our lives cannot remain the same for eternity and we should not want them to, or what would the next generation have to work with? John A. Simons demonstrates the idea that everything is governed by change, it is inevitable and we must become accustomed to it. 'If you're in a bad situation, don't worry it'll change. If you're in a good situation, don't worry it'll change.'

Whether anticipated with fear, or welcomed with excitement, changes occur every second of lives and how we choose to greet them, sets into motion another change. I guess changes can be likened to obstacles, these can be high and problematic or simply low and unusual, but we must overcome them all. To live is to change. Summed up quite beautifully by an unknown author:

'If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies.'