Accepting Change Will Help You Lower Stress
So leave your comfort zone once in a while
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“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new” -Socrates
If you resist change, you’ll experience discomfort because you don’t consent to life’s fluidity. You fight unwanted events and the way they shape your existence. Accepting nothing stays the same and embracing unexpected or even expected events can help you cope with challenges.
Indeed, accepting change can reduce anxiety and increase flexibility.
“If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward” -Martin Luther King Jr.
People often know they dislike life altering around them, but this doesn’t make things easier. They mentally battle against change until they feel unwell. Even when they want to improve their lives, they resist transformation.
However, life is fluid; nothing is static. People come and go from your circle of intimate relationships, and despite how settled you are, you’ll likely move, or adopt new hangouts. You can’t prevent change, and it’s easiest to accept everything alters as time passes.
Accepting change
Get comfortable with change and allow it to happen. Instead of struggling to accept setbacks, take a deep breath to steady your nerves, and remember nothing is wrong. Often, people enter fight-or-flight if unanticipated incidences happen.
The chemical cortisol streams through your system, readying you to defend yourself or flee when stress strikes. Nonetheless, most of the changes you face don’t require you to go into battle or run away, and you remain anxious.
To deal with anxiety and make change acceptable, relax more. Practice deep breathing, and carry out other activities to aid calm. Walk among nature, exercise, meditate and spend time with positive friends. Once stress lifts, you will find life easier to handle.
Practice
Sometimes, those who fear change the most avoid it for long periods. Not having altered their routines for ages makes them rigid, and when change comes, they find dealing with it hard. You can increase your ability to cope by practicing.
Alter routines; shake things up a little.
Take up new hobbies and stretch your boundaries. Step out of your comfort zone and try something new. Go to different places, try foods you’ve not eaten before, and move the furniture around now and then. You might join a yoga class, learn tai chi, or go skydiving. It’s up to you.
You need not go crazy, changing in significant ways; you could just read books in a different genre than usual or drive another way to work.
Change is unsettling and may lead to stress. You’ll learn to cope better by leaving your comfort zone once in a while and trying new ventures. Also, de-stress and lower anxiety with calming activities and deep breaths.
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