To many of us, myself included, change can present a tremendous amount of stress.  Why is this?  In my case, when dealing with issues in my personal life, I am very much a creature of habit.  While I have moments of impulsivity, for the most part, I like things “the way they are”.  I acknowledge and accept that this is, perhaps, not the best of attitudes.  We live in an ever-changing world; seasons change, people change, heck, even the topography of the world changes.  When we rely upon people and circumstances outside our control, we must accept the fact that he/she/they may not perform as we expected.  This, therefore, generates change.  Change of plans; change of expectations.

Sometimes, it’s awesome to shake things up a bit.  Move out of our comfort zone.  See “what we’ve been missing”.

“To cope with the stress associated with change more effectively, it’s important to understand that you do have control over how you allow change to affect you.  One of the reasons that change is often viewed as a stressor is that people tend to view it negatively.  People have a tendency to prefer stability and security.  However, individuals don’t often perform their best in the absence of change. There’s a very real tendency to become complacent when things stay the same for an extended period of time.  Change can be quite positive. Many times, change leads to improved outcomes and better decisions.”[1]

It stands to reason, therefore, that if we can embrace change as a) inevitable and b) a good thing, the stress we feel when big changes come around can be greatly minimized.

As Horace said in Odes Book I, CARPE DIEM!

Besides reducing the stress levels significantly, we never know what opportunities await if we stay in our comfortable little box.

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[1] http://stress.lovetoknow.com/Stress_Associated_with_Change