Fear of Change Is a Waste of Time and Energy
Welcome back to Mid-Week Meditations , Lifehacker’s weekly dive into the pool of stoic wisdom and how you can use its waters to meditate and improve your life.
This week’s selection is from Marcus Aurelius. He suggests that change is integral to being in this world:
Someone is afraid of change? What can be without changes? Or what is dearer or closer to the nature of the Whole than change? Will you be able to take a bath yourself if the wood that heats it has not changed? Can you be fed unless what you eat changes? Is it possible to receive any other blessings of life without changes? Do you not see that change for you is equivalent and equally necessary to the nature of the Whole? – Meditations 7.18
What does it mean
The first line can be read in several ways. Most likely, it means “if someone is afraid of change, tell them about it”, but I prefer to read it like an infant “ah, is someone afraid of small changes?” You can choose what you like best.
In any case, argues Aurelius, nothing happens in the world without changes. You cannot take a bath, you cannot eat, you can enjoy all the benefits of life, without accepting that change is constancy. So, you must also accept that changing your life or changing your life is also natural. You are not above the basic mechanisms of the universe, so why be afraid of what you know is completely natural? You will deal with change because you have to.
What to take from there
Fear is not always a bad thing. It keeps us safe, keeps us healthy, and often makes us feel more alive. But there are dangerous types of fear that gradually carry away our happiness with stress and discomfort. Fear of change is one of them.
Yes, change is often uncomfortable, and at times it can be a big problem. But it’s the change that makes life so interesting and rewarding in the first place. Aurelius also said that “the universe is change” (4.3.4), therefore, as you can see, to live – to exist in this universe – is to change. Don’t be afraid of your own existence. Accept this. Control what you can control and learn to adapt to the endless changes happening around you. Change makes everything worthwhile.