Mapping My Journey To Change
Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is quoted as saying "Change is the only constant in life."
I recall reading that and also hearing quotes saying people never change. Over the course of 50 years I have realized there are two significant types of change in our lives; proactive and reactive.
Proactive change is when I have a desire to make a change. This may ultimately be a reaction to something else. Reactive change is when a life circumstance or something outside our control forces a change we must now live with. As I was working on this blog and going through the various steps necessary to create who my readers would be and understand what they would gain or what pain I would help them through in reading my blog it became very clear to me that most of us are completely unaware of our ability to change and how to go about it. We change because of circumstances rather than changing our circumstances because of our awareness.
As I was working on my second half planning at work I realized there is a tool used by businesses which may enable us as individuals to recognize some pivotal moments in our lives when we have allowed our circumstances to change not only the course of our life, yet also us. We have slowly allowed ourselves to be defined by the labels we hold as friend, mother, employee and then altered our own purpose and passion to become these labels which all to often we have given ourselves.
We awake and begin a rinse and repeat cycle of the previous day unaware that we have allowed our circumstances to change us. To limit our passion for a life full of love and happiness. We distract ourselves by social media, the news and gossip and spend the late nights wondering why we can't sleep. We dread the alarm clocks and want to pull the pillow over our heads and go back to sleep because somehow our dream life seems more fulfilling than our real life.
We stay constantly busy because if we were still and in silence for even an hour we would be forced to face our own internal unhappiness. We look outside ourselves for fulfillment and spend way too much time discussing how others aren't living their lives right in our opinion all the while never owning the path we are on or the truth about our own happiness.
Then one day something changes, a shift, an awareness that life is supposed to be one where we feel from the inside out. Not one in which we distract ourselves with activities and objects on the outside hoping to numb the emptiness we are feeling on the inside. In that moment we recognize the beauty life holds. We stop and reflect on moments of complete joy and happiness.
CL Landreth