Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

It can be scary to change, to turn and face the strange. Even if our old ways are no longer helpful, at least they’re comfortable and familiar. Feeling blah is like an old worn out couch with an Yvette-shaped groove. Yes, it should be out in hard rubbish but I’ve spent so much time here. I know it so well! But change is inevitable, necessary and beneficial. In fact, change is the only constant in life. While we’re not sharks, most of us can relate to their dilemma of having to move or die. Things are changing whether we like it or not. So how can we make peace with the fact we need to just keep swimming… just keep swimming.

 Shelter from the storm: We can’t control the external factors but we can choose our response. Charles R. Swindoll hit the nail on the head when he said, “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.” Create a mindset where it’s always safe and warm by accepting that change is constant and reassuring yourself that you’ll make it through with encouraging words like; ‘there, there. There, there’. Turn on the rose coloured lights in your mind to see the best in things and adopt an attitude of gratitude. Your breath is an ever-present BFF, connecting your mind, body and spirit. Slow your breathing and serenade yourself: Try imagining a place where it’s always safe and warm. Come in, I said, I’ll give ya, shelter from the storm.

Bah humbug! Your mindset may be warm, but it’s time to go to the dark side. My fave motivator Tony Robbins uses a technique he calls “the Dickens Process” to help people change their behaviour and beliefs. You take yourself on a journey, a la Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, through your past, present and future and envision the horror that awaits if you do not change. To stop drinking alcohol for example, you might see the debilitating hangovers, blown budgets, hours wasted and broken relationships that have been and will be a result of continuing. The pain you have now connected to drinking will be more compelling that the short term pleasure a tipple might bring. You can do this with any thing you’d like to change and exclaim “God Bless us. Everyone!” when you see its positive effects.

Affirmative…affirmative: Affirmations can support you through change. I try to do 10 minutes of reading affirmations aloud in the mirror each morn (to the disinterest of my cat) and it helps to subtly change your self-talk which changes your thoughts which changes how you feel which attracts good things. We’re all winners! Louise Hay has many beautiful affirmations in her book “You Can Heal Your Life” including this one for change: “Change is the natural law of my life. I welcome change. I am willing to change. I choose to change my thinking. I choose to change the words I use. I move from the old to the new with ease and with joy.” How wonderful it is to think of making changes with ease and joy. The alternative is vividly depicted in the Zen proverb: Let go or be dragged.

So when facing the strange; try creating a safe mindset, see the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future and affirm your ability to change.It’s time to put down that drink and place that old misshapen couch out on the street and create some ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Love and light and don’t be afraid to catch changes xxx Yvette

 RIP David Bowie and Louise Hay

Tony Robbins Dickens Process

Louise Hay Affirmations

David Bowie Changes

Bob Dylan Shelter from the storm