Transformation and growth are your divine right
You'll grow into it.
Growth is incremental, step by step, day by day. It never ends. It doesn't cut corners or jump ahead in the queue.
You can't buy your transformations, you can only live into them.
That change you want to make, that knocking on the door of your heart that you know will bring painful and dramatic growth if you answer it, the deep and life-changing shifts that are trying to take place within you,
you'll grow into them if you allow yourself to.
You are allowed to change our mind.
Change is normal and holy and natural. Progress is the art of evolution in motion, growing from one belief, way of doing things, rituals, values, practices, to the next.
You grow and you learn and you practice... and you grow and you learn and you practice. As you shed old ways to take on new ones, your life progresses and transforms. Somewhere along the way, the belief that this cycle ceases has seeped into our psyches.
Perhaps you're embarrassed by change? Maybe you have taken on the belief that the need to change is an indictment on the old, on what is... that change somehow means that you've failed.
Change is not the condemnation of what has been. It is the welcoming and engagement of the forward movement of life. Everything is always changing. You are constantly shedding cells and skin and hair and ideals and practices and beliefs.
Why do we resist it?
We, as a global and local community, and as individuals, are in need of change. We need to stop resisting the forward movement of progress and becoming. We need to embrace the changes that continue the evolution of life. These past few weeks have highlighted particular areas of growth we need to engage. And yes, some of these are because old ways and beliefs are failing us. Some of these changes take place as you awaken to what really matters. Some of them happen through tragedy and grief and trauma. Some of them happen as you learn new things about people and politics and ways and means. And some of them happen as we lean into whatever life brings our way.
At the end of it, we change not because WE are failures, but because the new thing, way, meaning, belief, practice - whatever it is - serves us BETTER, individually and collectively.
On an Instagram post, Brit Barron said:
"We don't need to dig our heels deeper into the sand every time we feel the ground shift. It's okay if yuo shift with it. It's okay to change your mind. It's okay to be a different person than you were ten minutes ago. The ground is [always] shifting, and it's okay to let it move you."
This series is about how to surrender to change; how to know when and where to flow with it, and if there's ever a point where we should resist and dig our heels in.
Change and transformation IS the Jesus message. Somewhere along the way, we've lost the point, and have turned Christian spirituality into a measuring stick, rather than a pathway. We've made the work of Jesus about suffering and sacrifice and standing against people and things and change.
We've used it as a means of judgement rather than a means of grace.
Rumi said:
Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead, let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?
Friend, transformation and new life is your Divine right. So let go of your old ways, the things that are holding you back, the things that are breaking your heart, the things that halt the flow of love and grace within you and around you. There is suffering to be endured, absolutely, but suffering is not your calling.
Becoming is.
(This post is an excerpt from The Practice Co App series called "You Grow Into It", available to download for iOS and Android! It includes daily devotionals, phone wallpapers, a daily mindful prompt and more included. Start with a free trial or subscribe to get access to each new series as they come out.)
Mindful Prompt: What do you believe about change? Can you think of anything that doesn't change? Can you think of anything living that doesn't change? Repeat this thought throughout the day as you ponder the changes beckoning for your engagement: How do I know that the side I am on is better than the one to come?
Much love from Liz Milani.
Instagram: @thepracticeco
