Navigating Through Change and Landing on Your Feet!
Published on 28 Oct 2008 at 10:23 am.
5 Comments.
Filed under Business Development, Feature Articles, Personal Development Strategies, Spirituality & Inspiration.
“Life’s weather is but temporary. It’s the seasons that really matter. Finding balance in the storm. Life.” - unknown
Some people thrive on change – they love it and even create more of it. Others view change with anxiety and resistance. So often, we don’t associate potential, excitement and wonder with change. Instead, we react to it; we try to control it; we create situations and problems to avoid dealing with it. We experience change daily in many forms – the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the conversations we have, traffic patterns, the WEATHER.
While change is a constant in life, some changes (mergers and acquisitions, downsizing, reorganizations, job relocations, promotions, divorces, marriages, the economy, war) affect our lives on a bigger scale with impact on multiple areas of our business and personal lives.
William Bridges, author of Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, states that change is an external experience of something new, clearly defined, and often with a starting point or a stopping point. It can be sudden something we know about in advance. Such as ending a job and starting a new one, being married and getting divorced.
Transition on the other hand, is the psychological impact change has on people. Transition can be highly emotional and personal. It’s an internal process that must be navigated to successfully make a change. Transition takes longer because it requires that people undergo three separate processes, and all of them are upsetting.
William Bridges identifies transition as a three-phase process that describes the internal, personal response we have to the external changes in our lives. These phases can serve as benchmarks, helping us to recognize where we are on the path of transition. The phases are as follows:
Phase I – Endings
Bridges says “There are four different aspects of the natural ending experience: disengagement (disconnecting from “ what was,” the old ways of doing things and letting go of the situation and “who you were” in that situation), disidentification (you may lose ways of self-definition), disenchantment (the discovery in some sense that your world is no longer real), and disorientation (feeling lost, confused, don’t -know –where- you- are)”.
Phase II – Neutral Zone
The gap between the old life and the new creates a confusing state of not knowing yet who you are and where you’re going to be. In the Neutral Zone, confusion reigns for a period of time.
The keys to navigating through this phase are: control, understanding, support, and purpose. Designing a plan that incorporates all four keys is pivotal to successfully transitioning to the next phase, Additionally, surrendering to this temporary state and having the courage to give yourself time to see this process through to the next phase, will bring greater clarity, strength, inner alignment and energy renewal.
Phase III – New Beginnings
You accept the new reality change brings and start identifying with your new situation. “Inwardly and outwardly, you “come home.” Taking things step by step you start taking action and making your life – your life!
Creating a Powerfull Life Strategy
If you’re facing (or anticipating) one change of several changes, these tips will help you navigate through transition and help you land on your feet:
1. Acknowledge what’s happening. Get real about your situation and eliminate denial. Identify what you can control and/or influence to gain perspective in devising a strategy for action.
2. Invite collaboration. Brainstorming is an excellent resource for pooling knowledge by gathering other points of view for creative problem solving.
3. Ramp up self-care. Taking good care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually is a critical factor in staying strong and focused. Establishing some daily routines/habits provides consistency and a sense of control.
4. Need to vent and/or have someone just listen? Build a support team of family, friends, colleagues and or professionals who will hear you with objectivity and encouragement. Surround yourself people who will help you regain your emotional and mental perspective to stand strong in clarity, confidence, faith and trust.
5. Interrupt and replace negative self-talk. Fear tends to view situations through a narrow lens with an emphasis on problematic thinking and worse case scenarios. Take charge of your attitude. YOU are the source of your thinking and behavior. The way you view a situation determines your experience. Instead of focusing on the worst, expect the best. For 3 tips on managing negative self-talk, click here
6. Be engaged in pleasurable or stimulating activities. Lighten up and take time to relax with friends and family. Building in opportunities to have fun will help take the edge off emotional stress and tension.
7. Recall a past experience you successfully transitioned. How did you do it? What can you take from your past success to use in future experiences? Drawing from personal history builds confidence and stirs the creative juices.
8. Invite curiosity. Ask yourself, “How does this situation compel me to grow? What can I learn about myself, my life from this change? What opportunities does this change offer me? What can I take from this experience to improve myself/my life?” Use what you discover to move you forward.
9. Practice being present. Focus on where you are today to guide your decisions and actions. Most fear and emotional distress are generated by keeping focus and attention on the future. Worrying about what ifs, worse case scenarios and problems keep anxiety and stress high. Bringing yourself back to the present moment will help you disengage from the dramas and stories you are creating in your mind (that will most likely never occur).
10. See yourself in the future, at the other side of the transition. Create a vivid picture in your mind of how you see your life at a future point. Be sure to add as much emotion to the image you create to help you hold this intention in your mind and heart. Make this picture positive and compelling. Incorporate this image as part of your daily routine (see #3) and use this picture to pull you forward through your transition.
11. Make a plan of action that includes daily and week goals with the vision you created in #10. Completing big and small goals support a feeling of control and sense of accomplishment. When developing your action plan, be sure to tune into your intuition and inner guidance for direction and clarity.
12. Incorporate spiritual practices every day. What connects you to your faith and trust to help you regain your spiritual center? Adding spiritual practices will help you experience greater peace and calm. Responding from a centered space invites inspired and deliberate action.
No matter what is happening in your life, the one power you always retain is how you choose to view yourself and your situation. Realize that every experience offers a learning opportunity. Rather than seeing what’s next as something to fear and avoid, you can choose to run towards the next phase of your life with excitement and enthusiasm as you open to new possibilities.
Need some spiritual support? Join my FR**EE Spiritual Circle beginning November 5. Click here to learn more and sign up
Have a great day 
Lorraine
www.powerfull-living.biz
Tim Brownson on 29 Oct 2008 at 9:49 am: 1
Lorraine - I agree that some love change and some hate it, but I’d say the balance was somewhere around 9:1 in favor of those that hate it!
Weird that it’s the one constant in life too.
lorraine on 29 Oct 2008 at 11:05 am: 2
Imagine what it would be like if people could look at change as something positive rather than something problematic or painful.
It’s all about choice Tom
Thanks for your comment!
axel g on 1 Nov 2008 at 8:40 am: 3
Hi Lorraine!
Change is present all around us, isn’t it? By resisting change, we create our own unhappiness.
On the other hand, always expecting the grass to be greener elsewhere - makes for restlessness and disappointment.
I agree, the present moment is a universal tool…
Nice site +_+
lorraine on 1 Nov 2008 at 1:23 pm: 4
Hi Axel!
Nice to meet you. Yup - resistance only creates more resistance.
To your point, expectations can be a source of more pain and misery when we become attached to how we want things to be and resist/fight/struggle against what is happening.
Change is a great teacher for me!
Come back any time Axel
Warmly,
Lorraine
Powerfull Living » 7 Reasons Why You Might Not Be In The Flow on 1 Aug 2009 at 1:23 pm: 5
[...] Change brings experiences that offer healing and growth opportunities. When we are in transition, our challenge is managing the psychological stress and emotions that are stirred up with change. Are you taking advantage of them to evolve or using them to complain and blame? (Read my article on Navigating Through Change) [...]