Verified by 
Change. There’s been a lot of change lately in our world. The most important way life has changed is that our world is becoming more complex. The complexity of life is shifting faster, and no matter our age, these changes are easily seen. Yes, we can see examples with our parents and grandparents, and how things are different now as opposed to when they were growing up.
So many changes
There are so many examples. Change seems to be the new norm.
Just recently, in Southern California, where I live, we had a hurricane. It was the first hurricane that I can remember since I lived in Southern California. This is just one example of how our world is changing so fast. Change is the one constant. Our world is going to be different 10 or 20 years from now.
But we’re here to find happiness. So, let’s take a deep breath, pause, and say, “OK, our world is changing, guaranteed, and it can create a lot of anxiety, stress, or worry.”
But there are ways we can work against these anxieties and learn that we can find peace and happiness no matter what. So, let’s talk about what we can do with all the changes in our world.
Do not resist change
The first thing that causes anxiety is fighting change. If we say, “I don’t want this change! Go away," we’re going to suffer. We’re going to be anxious or even mad because change is, in many ways, the new norm.
It doesn’t mean that we need to embrace the change. We simply need to realize that change is part of life now. We need to learn to adapt. One of the best ways to adapt is to acknowledge the change in the world. Instead of fighting change, find ways to make life go well. There are many ways we can acknowledge change without embracing it.
For example, we can choose to live off-grid. We may find a cabin in the mountains and live a simple life. And that’s OK. We may not get involved in every technology available, and when cars change, we may keep our old cars. We can fix them for many years because we like them. Maybe we don’t like a computer running our car.
There are many ways we can choose not to go with the change without fighting the change. But this is a choice. But when we actively fight change, it will get harder for us.
The key is making choices
The key to life in this situation is to realize that, yes, there are changes, and yes, we’re going to need to make choices. Those are the two things that are inevitable. There are times when choices are thrust upon us, and we automatically fight against making choices.
You and I are probably not going to stop the changes we are now seeing in the world.
The oceans in Southern California are getting hotter. When hurricanes come, I need to be able to protect my home from all the rain and winds—I may need to make changes to my home. I have a California home. I am not used to those types of changes. So, to adapt well, I need to make changes. I don’t have to. I may choose to move; I may let the hurricane come and just rebuild again. What is not inevitable is how we choose to respond to these choices. Will we fight them? Will we get angry when they are thrust upon us? We must choose to rebuild or move.
And then sometimes, life gives us no choice. With complexity, sometimes life changes so much, there really aren’t any choices but the one in front of us. So, how we make that only option go smoothly is by saying, “OK, I get it. I have no option but to move … to replace my car because my state is requiring me to get an electric car.” There are times in life when we don’t have many choices, and sometimes none.
Then, sometimes, we have too many choices. But it’s about how we handle these choices. Do we fight them because there are too many? Sometimes it’s overwhelming.
We can say, “Thank you, life, for giving me a choice. Help me, life, to make the best choice. Help me to respond with equanimity and peace. Let me embrace whatever is before me and live well with this choice.”
One key to living in an anxious world: You must flow with life.
One of the main things I teach is that you suffer when you fight change. It doesn’t mean we cannot make choices, and it doesn’t mean we cannot stand up for what’s right. But we do it calmly and without anxiety. We know we must make choices, and as our world becomes more complex, we will have to make more choices in the future.
We all go through seasons, and this is just a part of life. When change happens, sometimes it’s external and sometimes it's in our personal lives and all around us.
We live in an anxious world, but we do not have to embrace the anxiety.
We are developing tools for how to embrace and flow with changes instead of fighting them. We cannot choose to stop change. It is coming. And some of the changes we may even like—medical advances, scientific advances. Change doesn’t have to be bad.
Many changes will be wonderful, and some of them will be challenging.
Learn to focus on the present
We tend to get overwhelmed when we think too much about the future. We don’t know what the world will look like in five to 10 years, and given that, we don’t need to focus on that. We need to focus on what we should do today. We should ask, “What would make this moment go well?”
This makes life so much easier. So, if you go back to this 10 years from now, the advice will still be the same. We suffer when we tackle too many things and get overwhelmed. We stop suffering when we take one thing at a time. There’s always at least one thing we can do to make our situation better.
This approach is truly the “secret sauce” to a happy life. When we focus on one decision at a time, we can do extremely well. What tends to overwhelm us is when we think of the next 10 things we must do. We can have a list of what we need to do, but mostly, we focus on the one thing before us.
The larger decisions
In life, we sometimes must make bigger decisions. Maybe we must buy a car, move, prepare for an upcoming wedding, or maybe we must choose which college to attend—these are big choices. They take a lot of energy and concentration.
I suggest doing one thing first and waiting until it is completely done before going on to the next big task. This is helpful. I just used this technique and I use it often.
I had a used car that I needed to sell. So, I sold it myself, and it was a bit of work. I also needed to get a new computer because my computer is getting older. So, instead of trying to do both tasks at the same time, I chose to sell my car first. I did that last week, and I am glad. The next task: getting my new computer and updating all the information on the device. Again, these are challenging tasks but very manageable.
We do better by focusing on the present. And if we have bigger decisions to make, let’s do them one at a time, and wait until one is completely done. Then tackle the next task.
Work with change, not against it
Yes, we do live in an ever-changing world. I believe that change will become fast-paced too. The good news is, we can ride that wave so well. We can handle these changes with equanimity and peace. When we stop resisting change and make one decision at a time, big or small, we will find that though we may be living in an anxious world, we are living well.
