The nature of change is that change is an inherent part of the natural order of things. Everything is impermanent, including all of us. We cling to the changes that we love, and we resist or fight against the changes that cause us suffering.
Try to tune in to the rhythms of nature. The leaves fall each autumn and return each spring. The sun rises and sets, and the ocean tides come and go predictably each day. Storms arise, and sometimes nature rearranges itself into a new shape. So too is the nature of change in our lives, always creatively redesigning our lives.
We can’t hold on to anything — a beautiful sunset, a sweet taste, an intimate moment with a lover, our very existence as the body/mind we call self — because all things come and go. –Tara Brach
See if you can find comfort in knowing that each change is merely a wave in the big ocean of life. Put your ear to a whelk shell. The sound of the ocean is always there. Turn your attention to the breath. As long as we are living, the breath is always there, coming and going. Can you find refuge in the constancy of the breath? Can you notice that even in its continual nature, it also has its own rhythm of change? We inhale, and then we exhale. The direction of the breath is always changing, but the pattern of breathing in and out is constant.
Everything is impermanent. All things come and go. Embracing impermanence, we find peace. Fighting against it, we create suffering.
Jen Johnson is a mindfulness teacher, coach, and therapist teaching meditation for healing and creativity and mindfulness for resilience. She has been teaching mindfulness for 30+ years.