Life is full of life transitions. Some we hope and plan for and some we never asked for and do not want. Change is inevitable and we will all face many transitions in our lives. Life transitions can bring new and exciting opportunities to move forward in our hopes and dreams and it also can bring change where we do not want change or even the ending to something we hold dear.
We can feel excited and ready to start on transitions that we have chosen like a new job or career change. We can feel sad, disappointed and grief when we are forced to deal with a transition that we did not want.
Often, we can feel stressed and a little overwhelmed when we are starting in a transition time. We can be excited and also feel a little unsure of the situation or even our abilities. We can face new challenges and feel apprehensive about the unknown in new situations. Moving into a time of transition will bring many thoughts and emotions.
Some life transition that we may walk through in our lives are not ones we may have chosen. Sometimes life situations change, and we are forced to change and try to adapt to the new. When this happens, we can feel as we have no control over our lives especially related to this area, we can feel as there is nothing, we can do to change the situation, which may be true but there are ways to navigate change in a way that is best for ourselves.
Some transitions that you may experience in your life are:
- Graduating from high school, trade school or college
- Moving out of your family home
- Getting a new job
- Gaining more responsibilities at work
- Getting a new boss at work
- Moving to a new house
- Relocating to a new city
- Starting or ending of a relationship
- Getting married
- Having a baby
- Changes in your financial situation
- Health issues
- Accidents
- Starting a new career
- Working on your goals and dreams
- Loss of someone you love
These are just a few life transitions that you may experience in your life. All transitions have an element of being hard, learning to embrace change and figuring out how to move forward.
Here are some ways to help you navigate life transitions:
Accept.
Change is a normal part of life, and we will all experience many types of transitions. While some changes will bring joy, excitement and anticipation, others will bring anxiousness, stress, feeling overwhelmed and grief. As hard as it may be, we need to accept that life has ebbs and flow and often we are not able to control all the changes that may come into our lives.
Embrace.
Take the time you need to recognize the value of where you are right now and how it may hold a special place for you. Moving forward and changing can be an exciting time but it is good to embrace where you are now and allow yourself to reflect on where you are before you move into the next part of your journey. Taking photos is a great way to document where we are currently. Often people will do a day in life photos, and this is a great way to document a day in your current season before moving on.
If this change is not one that you wanted, taking the time to reflect on any positives of the current place you are or reflecting back on why you may have chosen this path, can be valuable in the healing and in taking the steps needed to move forward. Take the time to identify what you are feeling and why you feel that way. Journaling is a great way to let your emotions flow and when we are writing it is more difficult to edit what we are feeling in the moment. Journaling is also a valuable way to begin to put together our next steps. Journaling does not need to be paragraphs and pages. For some using bullet points works great. Choose what works best for you.
Reflect.
When change is coming, it is a great time to reflect on where we are at currently in our lives and where we may want to be in the next 5, 10 or 20 years. Taking time to revisit our goals and progress can help us to evaluate and even possibly change some of the goals we thought we wanted. Looking at how this transition fits into what we want for our lives can help us to adjust.
Challenge:
All change has challenges! How will we handle the challenges? What mindset will you choose?
- We can choose to dig our feet in and resist the change.
- We can choose to fight against the change
- We can choose to embrace the new that is coming
- We can decide it will be a challenge and figure out the best way to manage and even possibly excel with the new changes.
Our mindset on how we view change and how we will move forward in it can be a significant help or a great hinderance. Denying and resisting change that is going to happen will make the transition much harder and take a longer time to work through it.
Relationships.
When change comes into our lives, we will need the encouragement, support and accountability of our friends and family. Doing change all on your own is extremely hard! Having someone to talk to about how your feeling, the changes that are coming and help with figuring your next step is invaluable.
Consistency.
While change is going to bring some upheaval into your life initially, it is good to keep as much as you can consistent so that not everything in your life feels upended and out of control. Some areas to focus on are:
- Sleep routines
- Eating healthy
- Maintaining exercise
- Remembering self-care
- Staying involved in your relationships
- Keeping to your daily routine as much as possible.
Success.
Anytime we are at a new starting point in an area in our lives, it is a good time to look back and see how we have managed change previously. There can be a lot to learn from our past experiences and successfully seeing how we have accepted, adjusted, and managed change in the past, can help to give us the courage and the confidence in handling this new change
One Step.
In times of transition, it is good to remember to focus on just the next step ahead of you. If we begin to try to plan everything out it can quickly become overwhelming, especially when we may not have all of the information that we need to make those future choices and decisions.
If you are struggling with change whether it be needing someone to listen and to help you to better understand all the circumstances around the change or help in making goals to move forward, our therapists are here to help. For more information, please take a look at https://upstaterestorativecounseling.com/relationship-issues/