How to Gracefully Fake it Until You Make It: The Emporer's New Clothes and Why You Remind Me of Spring.

I’m up early again. I’m not baking cookies this time and facebook has already been sworn off. I’m finding my flow in the day in a kind of clumsy way that mornings have sometimes.

Transition is happening and I wonder what new shape my life will take this time. I’m starting a new job this week and have a slew of auditions that I am excited about. I also just got a new roommate. Actually, it’s an old roommate that has returned from a year of travelling.

For the past couple of years, I have rented out the extra bedroom in my apartment, and the room has kept a steady revolving door. I have had 5 different roommates in 2 years, each staying for their particular duration in the city and then moving on to their next adventure.  It’s a set up that I love, and truly the only downside is that I meet wonderful people, live with them, and have to say goodbye.  A couple of them are some of my favorite people in the world, and it’s also how I met my boyfriend. Not too bad.

The revolving door in my home life is a constant reminder of transition, impermanence, and the importance of moving gracefully through change. For those of us who have chosen lives that have few constants, change is something that we come to expect and even look forward to sometimes. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t scary and that new circumstances don’t take some getting used to.

How do you deal with change? Do you greet it like a welcome stranger or do you proceed cautiously, only gradually opening up your heart once you’re ready to trust that your new circumstances won’t cause you any harm? Proceeding cautiously is a common way to go, but what would happen if you made it a practice to let go of old circumstances, embrace new ones, and proceed with full trust through transition?

Though I mentioned people who have chosen lives of change, we all experience transition. I’m sitting here by the window in my kitchen, occasionally looking out at the leaf-less trees. Soon they’ll be covered with buds and then, soon enough, bursting open with flowers. The weather is slowly but surely getting warmer and then we’ll experience that most obvious, universal transition- the changing of the seasons.

When it’s winter to spring, I’m always jazzed by how people welcome the transition with such open arms. The women start strutting as loud and proud as the trees with their new colors, people start breathing deeper and smiling more, enjoying time outdoors, re-connecting with nature. Yes, winter to spring is an easy transition.

But what about the hard ones? How do you deal? This is not to downplay that fact that some changes are hard, but may I suggest that you deal with the hard changes as if you were greeting spring after a long winter? This may sound crazy if you’re in the middle of a really hard change, but bear with me here. Sometimes our attitudes reflect our experiences. If you approach a hard change with an attitude of openness and perhaps a smile (even a little one will work), maybe, just maybe, the change will seem less difficult.  And if it seems less difficult, perhaps it is less difficult. This is what I call a graceful fake it until you make it.  Let your attitude reflect the experience you wish to have and your reflection will change the outcome. Literally.  

Circumstances are gifts. Transitions are chances to open new presents. You just got a new gift. Go on! Open it! Don’t be scared! Something good will come as long as you keep your heart open and stay present to the changing tides.

Change is truly the only thing we have in this life. One way to say that you’re grateful for living and that you’re grateful for the good times you have had, is to let them go. Embrace your change. Those new clothes look mighty good on you if I may so myself.