Search all the Personal Development Blogs & Forums, Oprah.com and any other self-help-be-your-best-you offering, and you will inevitably find CHANGE as a major topic of concern.

“I find change too difficult”

“Why can’t I change my eating/dating/work/parenting/social habits and get the results I want?”

“I tried to eat a vegetarian diet, but it was too hard.”

Change is difficult. Change takes some amazing skill or willpower that most of us don’t have. Change is painful. Change is hard and bad. Or so we have been taught to believe…

Wrong

It just aint so. Change is automatic, unconscious, and happening constantly whether we like it, notice it, accept it, or not!

The cells of our bodies change constantly – they die off and are replaced by new cells – that is why we need to eat, hydrate and breathe on a consistent basis for optimum health.   These changes are what show age in the human body – and as much as we resist, it happens inevitably and without fail, subject to individual rates of speed, person to person.   We know this is true, or else why would we have cosmetics?

Not Just Physical

Even our thoughts change pretty constantly.  The monkey mind jumps from place to place – and sure, there are cycles and patterns that get repeated over and over – and we follow practices such as meditation and yoga to quiet and still those thoughts.

Beliefs change though experience, and also through exposure to different ideas.  They can be internally, consciously directed, or externally controlled via propaganda and media messages.  Typically, the ones we want to change intentionally are reinforced externally, so we feel the battle for control and it feels uncomfortable.

Change gets blamed for that, too.

Accept & Embrace Change

That’s so easy for me to say.  I love change.  I have always thrived on it, and for the longest time, it seemed to me that this particular quality was some sort of liability or character flaw.  Now I find it to be my favorite personality trait, because the world conspires to satisfy my craving!

We cannot stop our aging, the clock, the seasons, or the movement of the stars.  It’s all ticking along, sometimes slow like watching mold grow, and sometimes fast & sudden!

Like falling off a cliff.

So we can either learn how to post when the horse is trotting, or we can fall off and let the horse drag us along, kicking and screaming and whining and watching Oprah! (Well… watching Oprah for a while yet before we have only reruns in syndication. Like all good things, Oprah, too, must come to an end.)

So how do we learn to ride this horse of change?

Present moment living.  Staying in the now and enjoying this moment as it passes.  Then the next, and the next, and the next.

We resist change by dwelling in the past, and your reading of this sentence is already in the past. So, you could ignore everything that ever came before it, and still be happy.

In fact, you should.

Here’s to the next surprise!

People inspire me all over the place.

Last year when reading the Steve Pavlina forums I came across a post by a fellow forum member named David Cain. I like encountering people who use their own names in forums.  I generally do, and I feel drawn to others who have dropped the protective shield of anonymity when posting their thoughts and feelings.

He talked about how great he felt after a 30 day trial with no “drugs”. He meant caffeine and alcohol… I investigated, initially expecting it was harder stuff he’d gotten off of, but his insights and energy captivated me.

That captivation was well founded, as David went on to travel for about 9 months, to Thailand, New Zealand and Australia, living largely in hostels and working here and there to supplement his cash-flow.  He is back in Canada again, and has just shared a video of his trip.

Here is a link to his blog and the post with the video link.

David’s perspective is uplifting to me, and I appreciate his sharing himself with the world.

(to the tune of “Like a Virgin”)

Whether her music spoke to me in a particular incarnation or not, I always enjoyed watching Madonna change her persona.  From album to album, phase to phase, she was, and is, consistently unique and fascinating.

I wondered how it felt to experience these transformations.  I imagine that some new images were more internally grounded than others – particularly when she became influenced by Yoga and the Kaballah.  She must have enjoyed it all at some level –I hope so.

Madonna’s evolutions are public, dramatic and heavily themed.  Mine shall be a bit quieter, less choreographed, but certainly full of bright colors, singing and dancing!

I have been hiding, lurking in the shadows for a couple of years now.  Studying, contemplating, meditating, re-evaluating… and continuing to do the things I have always been compelled to do.  The thing that continually stumped me was how to offer value to the world on my own terms, enjoying every minute.

Well, here it is.  I offer my services to the world as a Change Agent.

What & Why?

What is a change agent and how will I be one?

I love change.  I love new.  I love experience.

I have identified ways to achieve levels of effective change and simultaneous contentment.

I want to help anyone who seeks my help to do this, too.

In the past decade, I have experienced:

• the passing of three parents,
• having a parent with Alzheimer’s Disease, twice,
• the “empty nest process” with both of my children,
• my husband’s loss of a job,
• leaving a 20-year career for self-employment,
• a business failure,
• moving over 1,000 miles, twice,
• menopause
• losing my best friend

In the past 3 years, I have successfully transitioned to a vegan diet and in the past 5 years I have stopped using credit cards, entirely.  I also reduced my alcohol consumption from a level that sometimes concerned me to a rare drink at restaurants now and then.

I know there is somebody out there who might want my help to do these things, too.

I do what I enjoy every day, and I am deeply content.  I look forward to each new day, and when I occasionally have a thought of worry, I have easy ways to change my thoughts.

How?

How I have done this is what this site is all about – or, really, how you can do this.

For starters, I’ll write articles for you.  I’ll write about what interests me as it relates to change and getting happier and expressing yourself.

Soon, I’ll offer consulting.  I will start with some trial offerings for one-on-one phone sessions as I develop my practice.

I expect my vision to develop and coalesce as I get into this deeper and deeper.

Much Love,

Joy