Before reading this post, I invite you to take a moment to think about what your usual response is to the word “change”. Does it scare you, bring a sigh of relief or even joy, or have no reaction at all on you? If it brings on fear, this means your mind or as the psychologists like to call it, the ‘ego’, is driving your reaction. If our minds focus mainly on negative thoughts, this could lead to depression, lack of motivation, and possible illness. On the other hand, if our minds have more positive thoughts, we can accomplish more and our lives will have a better chance of moving forward. If you have no reaction, then maybe it’s because you have never given any thought about what affect change can have. You accept changes in yourself and the world around you because it’s expected of you.

I first became truly conscious of the meaning of change and the affect it had on me a few years after graduating from university… in the 1970’s… while visiting one of my former roommates. She was married to her high school sweetheart and had acquired a good job in social work near the town where she was born. My life at that time couldn’t have been more different. I was not married with no prospects of ever being so, had two years of teaching elementary school under my belt, and enough money to take a sabbatical from it all for a year’s travel backpacking around Europe on $5.00 a day. I distinctly remember her reaction to what my plans were when she cautioned me to not make changes just for the sake of it. In her eyes, I was being irresponsible for not following the normal path that she and most of my classmates were taking at that time. It did, however, get me thinking about why I was giving up a secure job and not thinking about marriage and kids. When I look back on my decision now, I realize I did it to see the world and feed my soul by doing what I had always wanted to do when I was in grade school and that was to travel. I didn’t hesitate for one minute to consider not doing it. For me it was a dream coming true. To this day I’ve had no regrets about the choice I made. I learned more in that one year than I ever did after four years of university. It was the starting point for the rest of my life which didn’t always fit the norm and has brought many changes for me, some not so good but others almost always for the better.

My urge to travel has never left me despite two marriages, the birth of my daughter, various work involving teaching, sales and many house moves. Then along came COVID causing me to change my method of travel. Instead of travelling “without” or outward to far away countries, I began to travel “within” to find my true self. Once again, I focussed on taking time to learn more about who I am as a person and what my purpose for being here in this crazy mixed up world really is. If truth be told, I actually began this journey of going “within” while living in Toronto in the ’70’s and ’80’s by consulting some reputable astrologers, weekend visits to Lily Dale, a mediumship and spiratual centre in Western New York state, taking courses in spiritual counselling at the Transformational Arts College www.transformationalarts.ca and, finally, some NLP training (Neuro Linguistic Programming) in Toronto.

It feels strange to write this, but I have to thank COVID for re-awakening my interest in finding my truth by seeking answers to my problems from within me rather than relying totally on what I have read or experienced from the outside. Going within has helped me to use my heart or intuition more when making decisions instead of listening to what my mind or ego is telling me to do. This is actually making my life easier and definitely less stressful. It’s all about creating a balance in my life. If as an individual we can do this, then there is the potential to help out our ailing world. By seeing both sides of the coin, we will become less judgemental in accepting the people we meet and the differences around us.

In the past when I was growing up and taking psychology courses at university, we learned that there were two modes of learning: with our left brain or our right brain. Unfortunately, most of our learning was focussed on using the right side of our brains. Let’s face it, this was the way that most of my generation and those long before us learned and lived. Our God centered religions probably did the greatest disfavor for us by leading us to believe that HE had the answers which would only be available to us if we obeyed his laws and prayed hard enough. We were not encouraged to think for ourselves. I remember how horrified many religious leaders were when some forward thinking followers posed the theory that we could find God within and not up there on his throne looking over us. This was the beginning for us as humans to begin the journey of taking back some of our power. We could look for our answers by going within. This may sound easy but is far from it. It’s not like praying and asking God or the Universe, however you want to call it, for what you want and then sitting back to await an answer or expect some kind of miracle. We must do the necessary work to get it. The question is what do we have to do? Our first step is to get to know ourselves by asking what is it we truly want for ourselves, not what others expect of us. Think about what you’ve always dreamed of doing when you were younger? This is why going within is so important. If you use meditation as a way to go within or some form of it, such as Qi Gong, Tai Chi, breathing exercises, or a walk in nature, these are all good ways to still your mind, at least for a while. It takes effort every single day to be really successful at it. Unfortunately, this is where many fail. It takes the will or motivation to do it, as well as lots of discipline .

These days I am using yoga, Qi Gong and some meditation to still my mind. The most difficult part is to find the motivation and time to do that. It’s so easy to get caught up in carrying out chores, working too hard to make more money, taking care of family responsibilities, having a social life, taking courses, volunteering or simply doing something for the sake of keeping busy. Most of us like to keep busy because it’s what we are used to. Being busy shows others we aren’t lazy and we’re doing something useful. The key is to busy ourselves with the things that are going to benefit us by feeding our souls, and, thus, be of benefit to our world and our environment. For me as a retired person living on my own, I am in a much better position to take the time to work on myself. Nevertheless, I must always battle with keeping the momentum going by stilling my mind in order to listen to the messages I can receive from within. I know how difficult it must be for the younger generations today who are trying to get a good education, parents who are working hard to bring up their children to prepare them for a future which looks so bleak, and for all those who are losing their homes to the wildfires and flooding. The list of changes we are having to face just keeps growing which can be extremely overwhelming to many of us. With all of this going on where is there time to go inside to seek answers to our problems? Well guess what, we must make the time, right?

Let’s face it, none of us can escape change so we might as well bite the bullet and prepare ourselves to deal with it no matter what phase of our life we are in. The first thing to do is to learn how embrace all the changes we are having to face. This is the part that requires much courage because so many of us have been brought up to fear change. We have sought comfort and familiarity instead. This doesn’t mean we have to treat all the external changes that are going on around us in this way, but we do have to take a look at them and decide which ones to choose. How do you decide that you may ask? Well look at the good and the not so good ones facing you and choose those that resonate with you, meaning those that make the most sense to you. Another way to deal with it is to take a look at how the change fits into those things that are of real value to you. It all boils down to knowing yourself very well. The better you know your values, your motivators, your skills, your innate talents, your family background, your needs, and so on, the better you become in making choices to deal with changes you might have to make. This is especially important when dealing with changes that are not of your choice but being imposed on you by outside forces. All of this boils down to building more confidence in yourself and, thus, taking back the power you may have lost throughout your life’s journey starting from the day you were born.

To sum up, we all have the choice to either embrace change as our friend or make it our enemy. For centuries our world has acted primarily from a place of fear which explains why today we are facing all the upheaval everywhere. Instead, think about how our world could be if we accepted change as our friend. If we can think about it this way and see the advantages to accepting change, such as learning how to be open, courageous, kind, empathetic, and so on, we would become better human beings which can only help the world become better in some small way. It’s true that many scientists are now saying, we don’t have enough time to save ourselves and our wonderful world. Maybe they are right, but does that give us a way out by not even trying? I don’t think so. We need to consider how we can give back in any way we can for the wonderful fruits our earth has provided for us. We are the ones who have messed it all up so now the least we can do is to make an effort to atone for our mistakes.