How to Cope with Change: Feel What You Feel

Of the 5 things that help me cope with change, this one is the least pleasant. But it is also necessary & effective: feel what you feel.

I have lots of little (mostly healthy & productive) coping mechanisms that help me to not be consumed by my emotions during big transitions. But there are days when it doesn't help to distract yourself. Some days, you have to just sit down & feel what you feel.

Change is emotional. And change usually involves loss.

Even when you are gaining something good (like a new baby) you are losing something too (like your ability to sleep through the night.) Moving can be fun, exciting, an adventure. But that same move can also be disorienting, lonely & confusing.

For me, it usually takes a few days of scrambling around trying to fix everything. Finally I realize, I don't need to fix everything, I just need to be in it.

So keep developing some routines to help ground you in the chaos of change. And don't be afraid, once in a while, to just feel what you feel.

"I lift up my eyes to the hills -

where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven & earth."

Psalm 121: 1 & 2