3 Key Points to Manifesting Change
At the beginning of the New Year, a lot of attention is focused on change, right? Changing our diet, changing our activity levels, changing our sleep patterns, changing our habits, etc.
But as we witness every year, this attention and motivation to change doesn't have a long shelf life. And with every month after January, we see more and more people returning to the comfort zone of their previous habits, patterns and routines - even if they manifest negative consequences in their lives. Why is that?
From my perspective, it can be traced back to the principle of change:
In order for something to change into something new, it must cease to be what it was.
Think of a seed.
In order for the plant to reveal itself, the seed has to swell and eventually destroy itself. But it is in that very "death" of the seed that the plant is born and made possible. And so it is with us.
Change, no matter how beneficial, is HARD. It challenges us to un-become who we've learned to be and to sacrifice our attachment to the comfort of that identity. And then in the uncomfortable and uncertain space of "not being," only then can we enter into the process of becoming, evolving and stretching further into our untapped potential. Only then can we discover the deeper mysteries of who we are. And only then can we move towards fulfilling our life's purpose and the promise of who we were created to be.
And so if your sincere desire is to improve and evolve yourself, it's important to remain aware of 3 key points of manifesting change in your life:
1. Change is a process of death and rebirth.
For something new to begin, something old must end. Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, we must allow the death of an aspect of our personality, our ego, or our lower self in order for a higher aspect of ourselves to surface and manifest. So if we desire new beginnings, we must be prepared for endings as well.
2. Change is an ongoing choice. You can choose to change or you can choose to stay the same. But you can't choose both.
Change is not something that you set and forget. It requires an ongoing commitment from us to keep choosing change over stagnation, which is most often the harder of the two to choose. So it is an exercise of free will - choosing between the option of evolving ourselves and moving ahead and the option of keeping ourselves from growing and falling behind. Sometimes people convince themselves that they can change AND stay the same. But we can’t have both. One must be sacrificed for the other.
3. Change is uncertain and uncomfortable, and that's part of the journey.
When the going gets tough in the process of change, it will be tempting to turn around. Somehow we want it to be easier, smoother and more certain. But the very nature of change is expanding beyond what is known and certain and into whatever lies beyond that. Which is usually uncertain, challenging, sometimes painful, and most importantly, temporary. So to expect change to be anything but that is denying the reality of what change is. And through braving the initial uncertainty, difficulty and discomfort that you can break through to manifesting change in your life that is positive and sustainable.
So with whatever changes or shifts you'd like to make this year, do your best to embrace the principle of change and to bear these key points in mind. And hopefully they will support you in reaching a new level in your life and transforming yourself into a clearer, more aligned and more authentic version of You.
