I experience change all the time. My job is inconsistent. I share custody of my daughter. In addition, my life has been in flux for four years now. When I start feeling emotional, I reflect to figure out if something is changing. It’s difficult enough when change is affecting you. It gets really hard when it is affecting others around you that you have to maintain a relationship with: coworkers, friends, significant other, children, etc.
Summer break brings great challenges for myself and my daughters. It is a loved and hated time of year. When my daughter leaves it is a hard adjustment for me. I’m not sure what goes on with my daughter, but for me it’s an adjustment to a new normal. I have time that is vacated and needs to be filled. I feel a sense of loss; almost a state of grief. It takes about six weeks to get used to a new normal after a change. By the time I am used to things, she is on her way back. This summer, two of my daughters went away.
Now that they have returned, we are all having to adjust again. When this happens we are all emotional. It is hard to communicate. It is hard to be patient with each other. I’m so caught up in my emotions that it’s hard to see that my daughters are going through this with me. Over the last week I have embarrassingly lost my temper with them more times than I would like to count. This change also affects my other two daughters in the house. We are just a big hot mess until we are used to the new normal.
This is just one small example of change. If you think about your life, how many times have you experienced change and how has it affected you and others around you? You get into a new relationship. You leave a relationship. The relationship changes. You get a new co-worker. You change jobs. You start school. You end school. You have a baby. You have a school age child. You have a teenager. Your child leaves. The list could go on. Change causes stress. Sometimes the stress is good, but it is still stress. Change can get really difficult when it is a change you did not want. This is where you have to try really hard to grasp that feeling of acceptance.
I am sure that the impact change has on individuals is not the same. Our ability to handle it must be affected by our past, where we are mentally, and the circumstances around the change. Here is an article that talks about the nature of change.
What about when you want to create a change in yourself or your life? Of course it is hard to make changes within. I wonder how it affects those around us when we make a change to ourselves. If you really think about it, by you deciding to make a change for yourself, you are not just impacting yourself, but others around you. Here is an article about ten rules of change when you want to do some self-change.
I have been thinking a lot about change and how it impacts my life. This last week has been an emotional roller-coaster ride. I am sure that all the parents with children going back to school are right there with me. I know there are others that are going through change (its inevitable and happening all the time). If you are struggling with change, I want you to know you are not alone.
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