Handling Life Transitions

By Alison Brown

Life requires transitions. This kind of movement can be an opportunity for growth but is often uncomfortable. We can be content with the way things are and dread change, or we can dream of it every night before we go to sleep, but no matter what, transitional change is built into the human experience. If able, we move through life stages, physically and emotionally, from infants to children to adolescents to adults to older adults. No one asks when, or if, we are ready to move on, if it’s a convenient time, or if we have the support of friends or family.

Change comes in many shapes, sizes, and variations. From large, life consuming changes – like a serious diagnosis or big pay raise – to shifting minor details, like a quiet neighbor moving out. Transitional change happens whether we’re paying attention or not, whether we’ve asked for it or prayed it away. In life post quarantine, lingering anxiety can be a common experience triggered by anything and everything. Taking the time to find, collect, and use tools to cope with this transition is a valuable exercise in self-care that can be revisited or maintained.

For the past three years, there’s been an enormous amount of change that has fundamentally altered the way our world works. As institutions search for their new sense of normalcy, communities and people are doing the same by...

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