ANCIENT& not so ancient WISDOM
offering a weekly positive perspective

February 20, 2003

It is our reaction to outward events that represents true change.

- Jeffrey Hansler, born 1957 

Change is internal - outward events merely provide opportunity for change.

Change can be fun, positive, and a clear improvement. In these situations, while it still involves work and practice, change can be an enjoyable and pleasant experience. Much of my professional purpose is introducing new thoughts, ideas, behaviors, and perspectives that guide individuals to changes in their communication and choices.

Change can also be excruciatingly painful, both mentally and physically, from the external circumstances which create the initial pain and the internal process of changing your response to those circumstances.  Dealing with the external circumstances is the most immediate and seemingly the most painful until the true price of change is faced, which is the internal struggle to choose a different response.

During this process the emotions swing and the mind whirls. To create a change in response requires every ounce of effort available within you - every emotional reference and physical force to grasp onto life in a different way. It is a facing of fears beyond comprehension, a shift of reality from the set of thoughts and beliefs that you have based your life on to a completely new set of thoughts and beliefs.

It is virgin territory and brings with it the unknown. Even more frightening (or sobering) is the realization, at the decision junction, that the lessons that brought you to this point will be repeated until learned.

When you experience these trials in your life, take heart in the power that it is a choice made of faith and will, because you chosen to have a different reaction (and thus the possibility of different results) in your life... and it is worth any level of pain.

What is it that you wish to be different in your life?

Wishing you great and continued success!

Sincerely,