In December’ s Director, I wrote at length about the identity grief associated with change, because I see and believe that every change is a grieving process.
Change is usually linked to a change in identity, and identity is our deepest layer, and when it is threatened, it brings up a lot of deep feelings and triggers a survival mechanism. We mourn the previous situation, no matter how important or insignificant.
Sometimes we can mourn the previous great coffee machine in the office, sometimes its necessity after an unexpected redundancy or lay-off.
No matter how profound or superficial the change may be in the eyes of others, our emotional reactions always follow a similar path to the loss of a loved one. After all, we are the closest people to ourselves, and the loss of our own identity is a process of mourning with its own pain and deep emotions. It’s a question of accepting or suppressing emotions – or more precisely, “postponing their processing”.
How deeply a change in our lives affects us is always very personal and depends on similar situations stored in our subconscious that we are not aware of.
Understanding the emotional journey of change, both for ourselves and for others, increases empathy, reduces stress and brings us closer to our true goals.
Read more about the Director online or in 2021. in the December issue.
