Transition Is The Heartbeat of Life

Dealing with change, status quo, and everything in between.

Change happens to all of us, every moment of each day. We often do not recognize change unless it is a significant event. Getting a new job, a job loss, severe illness, getting better, marriage, births, deaths, and so on are the events we all associate with change.

Change happens externally to us.

When we encounter change, many of us naturally rail against it unless the change is something we want and desire. But even during the changes that we long for or determine to be needed, we experience chaos and upheaval. We go through many moments of questioning, feeling fearful, and being nervous and unsettled. The stress and illness associated with these periods are experiences we know well.

After the change events, we settle into amended status quo existences. Why? Because we gravitate towards sameness, normalcy, and regularity. We get used to the patterns, and we want those consistencies and predictabilities to remain. Wrapped up in those norms are our identities — how we are reflected when we look in the mirror or think about ourselves. It is tough to see beyond our current self-definitions.

Soon though, even after obtaining the thing, status, position, or goal that we wanted, we look in the mirror and see disenchantment staring back at us. Dissatisfaction reigns supreme in a world constantly holding us in consumerism’s vice-like grip. We are never in a state of contentment and rapidly psych ourselves out of satisfaction in the want-more existences we know. We clamor for change, something new, and the desire for more.

Reactive responses to change are necessary because change is a constant. These reactive responses and our wanting and pursuing more and different are also temporary.

We need to stop only reacting to change if we desire peace and contentment. We need to pursue transition.

Change happens externally to us. Transition happens internally.

Transition is the inner psychological reorientation of the mind that allows us to shift and adapt from one state to another.

So how do we transition?

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