Page 5 - Snoozer Guide to Mental Health and Wellness

Dealing with Change

Dealing with change can be hard. It is likely you are feeling a variety of emotions.

Allowing yourself to feel those emotions, while recognizing how you are reacting
and what you need, will help you navigate the “change curve”.

Think of a hill. You are standing at the top, looking across a dark and treacherous
valley, knowing that you need to be on the other side. The only way to get to where

you need to be is to travel down, face the fear and climb back up that hill. The
journey will take you through a variety of obstacles (emotions) before you can make
it to where you need to be. Change, when broken down, is this journey; and the

emotions you feel along the way to acceptance and meaning is the valley you will
have to cross.

Understanding these emotions will help you reach the other side. There have been
many studies conducted on the emotions we feel when faced with change and the

steps we take when integrating them into our life. Here is an easy way to break it
down:

The path to integration is different for each person. And although we are
summarizing emotions into six categories, each person feels and experiences each

stage differently. We are not suggesting this is the only way to feel, but rather that
you acknowledge the journey, label it and understand that what you are feeling is
natural. You are not in this alone! Your peers are experiencing it too. This journey

may take many forms, and you will not always experience these emotions in this
order. You may also feel these emotions multiple times before you fully process them.