Life always doesn’t go as we want it to. It’s not constant as well, it keeps changing as we are the ones who, if we want to keep up with life, need to adapt to the change. The change is what brings the diversity in your life and prevents it from being monotonous. You have to admit that the things have changed and it’s not like what it was before, so the earlier you understand the change the better you will adapt to it.
You need to be resilient and flexible to be able to grasp what life throws at you, resilience is the main driving factor in the adaptation to change. A change is sometimes necessary to help us become the best version of ourselves and dealing with it is pure art. As an artist comes up with whole new ideas to express his art similarly you can bring out the best in you if you are resilient and you have the ability to cope with change.
Why is it difficult to cope with change?
Indeed, it is really difficult to cope with change as humans by their inborn ability are conditioned to resist the change. You are really going smoothly in your life and when suddenly something, especially the main driver of your life changes you just don’t accept what has just happened. You are still processing your past and are too attached to let it go easily.
Suddenly when you get pushed out of your comfort zone you get really uncomfortable. You can’t really get hold of the things as they are not in your hands. So it becomes a task that you need you complete in order to cope with the change and this ia the only way you can get on with your life.
How to stay Positive?
When you are in the process to really Cope With Change, it becomes really important for you to stay positive and have a really uplifting energy in you. This is one of the key factors that helps you with change adaptation.
Reframe Negative Thoughts
Negative thoughts always hold you back and have the ability to not let you go of your past. If you can effectively direct your negative thoughts away from yourself you have a good take to cope with change. Negativity needs to be discarded when you are in a process of changing.
Celebrate Small Wins
Even the smallest of the things that make you happy should be celebrated, these have the potential to boost your mind and well being. They provide you a feeling of achievement and have antidepressant qualities associated with them. So they are a good way to let go of the past and live the present.
Surround Yourself With Positivity
Positivity also brings the best in you and is very important in dealing with change. As a change is innately perceived as negative, the antidote to it is staying positive. The more positive you are the more you repel the negativity associated with what you are unable to leave behind. Ultimately leading to a better chance of going with the flow.
Advantages of Embracing Change
There are numerous advantages associated with embracing the change. When you embrace the change you actually accept what is best for you.
Personal Growth And Development
As your personality is the one that gets affected the most by the change, it is essential you make yourself believe that you can and you will accept the change. This will help you build a stronger personality and it will enhance your development. These are the things that matter the most as you need not to become what you are not supposed to be.
Increased Flexibility
You really become flexible and resilient as you cope with change. Though your personality can take a hit initially but soon you develop a personality and the version of yourself that is more flexible and that can easily adapt to the challenges and obstructions that come in your way.
Enhanced Problem Solving Skills
Adaptation to the change boosts your problem solving skills. You become more analytical and aware of your life and its circumstances that surround it. You develop and solve the problems of your life easily which once looked unachievable. It has a positive effect on your cognition.
Evaluate your level of control
It is a fact that everything in your life is not in your control, you can have limited control on most of the things in your life but complete control is too much to ask for. Life is a combination of different causes and circumstances that make up a situation. So you can not control everything but what you can control in yourself. You can control your thoughts, emotions and activities. The life from its inception has been changing and will keep changing, people come and go the one who adapts to the changes to the one who excels in life. So it is important to have an idea of how much control you have on yourself. This helps in managing the situations easily.
Building confidence is an important part of coping with change. Read our article on Boost Your Confidence: Simple Tips to Build Self-Belief and Succeed to learn how.
Best ways to cope and deal with Big Changes
Bigger the change, the more difficult it will; be for you to cope with it but if you can do this then you can do almost everything. The key really is the timing, how early you can accept the change before it’s too late.
Acknowledge That The Things Are Changing
The earlier you acknowledge that things are changing, the better it will be for you to move on in your life. It is your choice to either stick to the past or let it go. You can only advance in life if you let it go and adapt timely to the change.
Realize That Even Good Change Can Cause Stress
The realization of the change is an important component in coping with the change. You should be firm and have faith that change even if it was a good one can still cause stress. It should not diamantle you, rather build you to be stronger.
Keep Up Your Regular Schedule As Much As Possible
One major mistake made by the people to cope with change is that they start living a really changed life from what they have been living before. This would not help but worsen life. You need to follow your previous routine as much as you can. Don’t let the change make you what you are not.
Try To Eat As Healthily As Possible
Eating healthy is the key for you to be physically and mentally fit. The change has many psychological and physical effects on you and to not let them get a hold of you. You need to be physically and mentally strong. Your dietary habits and practices are essential in managing the change.
Exercise
Exercising regularly either in your home or by joining a gym can have a positive effect on your mind. Exercise is a way to vent your frustrations while keeping you physically fit as well. By dedicating time for exercise you are actually helping yourself engage in an activity that will have an influence to cope with change.
Seek Support
You should not hesitate in seeking support if you are facing difficulties in handling the change or you are stuck in the past. The therapies can help you relax your mind and promote your mental well being which paves the way for a better adaptation to the change. Support can help you present your viewpoint about the change and then a shared and a more effective plan can be designed to help you with your needs.
Write Down The Positives That Have Come From This Change
The change though has a lot of negatives initially as you perceive them but they provide long term positives as well. A good way to remind you of what good the change has brought in your life you should write it down. So whenever you feel demotivated, you just glance at these positives and elevate your mood.
Get Proactive
To better adapt to the change you need to be proactive and be a step ahead in your life rather than being reactive. If you are already ready and aware if what is coming your way, you can get over it quickly and in no time. Being proactive means you can foresee the change and would not need to react in a shocking way if a sudden change appears.
Back Away From Social Media
Social media play a big role in our lives nowadays and it is very difficult to completely get rid of it. What you can do is limiting your social media consumption and particularly of those sections that trigger your past and have an effect in worsening you coping with the change.
Caring for Yourself
You should know that nothing is more important than your own self. Ultimately it’s you that matter. So you should care about yourself and not let the change bring in you a change that affects you and your personality. When you realize that how important you are the magnitude of the change falls drastically. You realize that the change can not be bigger than you so it becomes less bothering for you.
Self realization brings the inner and the best version of yourself and you start prioritizing yourself, your mental, physical and social well being. This is such an effective strategy for helping yourself understand the importance and magnitude of the change and how you can easily tackle it.
Practice Self Care
To cope with the change you can practice self care. Start by small and simple activities that don’t burden you like enjoy your hobbies, watch movies, sing, sketch, paint just ensure that you give yourself ample time as it is relaxing.
You can also get a massage, exercise, walk, or even just sit around and enjoy nature. This will ease your stress and you can focus on the larger goals of your life.
7 Best tips for coping with change
As there are numerous methods and tips that can help you with your management and coping with the change, still there are some that stand out are are proven to be more beneficial than the others.
Learn To Accept What Has Happened
Acceptance of the change is the most important and the single most effective way of coping with change. What has happened has happened, whether it was meant to happen or not. You need to understand that it was not in your hand to control the incident and what you can do is to simply accept the fact that it has already happened and you are past that phase. This acceptance is what is needed and it makes you resilient and ready for newer changes.
Pace Yourself
When the change occurs it dismantles you, you are not so active and mindful at the time so you just let the things be. This is the mistake made by most of the people that they lose the hold on themselves and can not control the pace of the event that follows. You should at least control some of the happenings and show some grit and take the pace of the event in your hands and not let the things be.
Ask Help From The Loved Ones
Your loved ones are the ones that understand you the best. Your time and a part of your life is shared with them. So if you are having a difficult time to cope with the change you should know who are the ones that will help you the best. Ask for help from your parents, siblings and close friends who know you. You should not hesitate to do this and openly let them help you. You will feel more relaxed and it will help you vent your stress.
Look For New Opportunities
If one opportunity has been taken from you, does not mean you have lost all of them. Numerous new opportunities arise from the fall of an opportunity. You should be welcoming enough to grasp and keep looking for newer opportunities. You can get a hand on one that might be even better than what you previously had and will ultimately help you to get over the change.
Give Yourself Time
You are the one who deserve your own time. Don’t let yourself be ignored by yourself. You should dedicate time for yourself and have a reflection on your life. This will help you realize where you stand at the very moment in time. It is essential to spare time for your own self and get over the change that bothers you.
Don’t Make Major Life Changes
Life needs not be changed entirely if you have been struck with a sudden change. You should know you get it once and it should not be consumed just for the sake of a change, be it a major or a minor one. To effectively manage the change you should live your life with the minimal of change from what you have been living before.
Have A Strategy For Dealing With Stress
When you are in the process of coping with the change you develop some strategies that suit you to adapt the changed landscape of life. This is the way to actually approach the change. You assess yourself and then do what works best for yourself. You should have a very own strategy and it also not necessary that works for others will work for you so a personalized strategy is the way to go.
Managing stress during change
Stress management is a key in overcoming the changes in your life. Effective stress management paves the way for a better adaptation to a changed life.
Recognize Stress Symptoms
The key in stress management during the process of change adaptation is the ability to recognize the symptoms of stress. You need to know what are the triggers of your stress and how they appear. Once you fully know the pattern you can avoid these triggers and cope with change easily.
Practice Relaxation Techniques
Relaxing techniques like yoga, meditation and walking in serense environments have a positive effect on stress relief. They enhance your brain and mental well being and you can manage stress easily and comfortably. Moreover you can also relax by doing activities that you consider can divert your mind from the tensions of life.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls
You might be really well going with the change adaptation but at the same time prone to the common pitfalls that can reverse your condition. You should know what are the mistakes that are made by the people coping with a change.
Seek Professional Help
Professional help should also be considered if you are failing to cope with change. The professional can effectively assess your condition and provide you with the necessary interventions that will alleviate your stress and boost your overall well being. Professional help should not be ignored in a way that you feel ashamed of it. It might be your best way to cope with change.
Don’t Rush Major Decisions
One of the most common mistakes in this scenario is that people are too fast and don’t give proper time to assess the condition properly. This leads them to make decisions based on others and that might not suit them. Giving yourself ample time in such cases is the way to go. Your major decision demands time and should not be rushed, else they may prove to be disastrous in the long run.
Avoid Self Medicating
Medication use without the physician prescription should be avoided in such scenarios where you are in a changing process. You never know what your medical needs are and self medication for stress or anxiety may worsen your current condition. So it is not recommended to even try minimal doses of medication without the physician’s approval.
Beware Of Negative Influences
Negativity should be avoided and you need to hold on to the positives that the change has brought to your life. Negative influences have the potential to overpower the positives. It is evident that negativity drives you to make less informed decisions and it impacts your adaptability to the change.
Writing down your thoughts is a powerful way to handle change and grow stronger. Take a look at our article on How Journaling Can Help You in Hard Times for more insights.
Find your Priorities
If you know what your priorities are and what you need to focus on, you can easily get over difficult situations like a drastic change. People who get stuck in their past and do not move on lack the mind to prioritize things. They just let the things be and go with the flow.
This kind of approach is like self destruction. It’s ok to be involved in a change but you need to get over it and to do it is to simply set your priorities. Like if you have lost a good job, what can you do if you just keep sitting and thinking about it. You need to find a new one and do some effort again. It is this simple to cope with change by knowing your priorities.
Change and your Mental Health
Your mental health is the one that suffers the most in the whole scenario. Mental once destroyed leads to the deterioration of physical health as well. Your top most priority should be to not let your mental health suffer due to the change.
Accept the change and move on. Engage in stress relieving activities and focus on the positives. Mental health, once you get going with the change automatically stabilizes.
Conclusion
Changes are a part of life, the ones who timely accept the change can easily cope with it. The ones stuck in their past are the ones who suffer and find it difficult to manage stress and cope with change. Resilience is the key to the situation and your mental and physical health should be your top most priority in dealing with the change. You need to consume the change and not let the change consume you.
Frequently Asked Questions
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