CHANGE

About things we once said we would “never” do

Are there things in your life you once believed you would never do?

And then you did them anyway.

Maybe unexpectedly.
Maybe because a situation led you there.
Maybe because life gently - or sometimes quite clearly - nudged you in a new direction.

And at some point you realize:
Without that step, your life today would hardly be imaginable.

Or do you recognize sentences like:

“I always do it this way.”
“That’s just who I am.”

And one day you notice that you are suddenly doing something differently.
Not because you have to, but because something within you has changed.

When our self-image becomes too narrow

For a long time, I never saw myself as a spiritual person.
I was convinced that I was a realist.

I grew up in a world where many things were explained through logic and reason. Things had to make sense, be understandable, tangible, provable. And I believed that this was how I functioned as well.

Over the years, however, I have discovered more and more sides of myself that I had hardly noticed before. Perhaps they had always been there. Perhaps I simply overlooked them for a long time — or unconsciously pushed them aside because they did not quite fit into the world in which I grew up and lived.

The mind likes clear lines.
It seeks categories, stability, and order.

Life, on the other hand, is rarely that clear.

It moves.
It changes.
It rarely remains exactly the way we once defined it.

When we say “never,” we often close doors before we even know where they might lead.

And when we say “always,” we try to hold on to something that may already want to move.

Why change feels so difficult

Why does our society struggle so much with change?

Why do we prefer to stay on the familiar shore?
Why do we so rarely recognize that chaos is also part of life?

Perhaps because uncertainty feels uncomfortable.

Yet we might suffer less if we allowed it from time to time and accepted it as part of life.

Today we know from neuroscience that the billions of nerve cells in our brain can continue forming new connections throughout our lives. Our brain remains capable of learning — for a lifetime.

And yet we often hear or say sentences like:

“I can’t do that.”
“I’m not the type for that.”
“I’m too old for this.”
“Others are more talented.”
“I don’t want to embarrass myself.”

We repeat these stories about ourselves so often that our nervous system eventually accepts them as reality.

But we could also phrase them differently:

“I can’t do it yet.”
“I can learn from my mistakes.”
“Challenges help me grow.”
“Every step forward begins with a first step.”
“Others are not my competition but my inspiration.”
“I am allowed to be curious instead of perfect.”

In life, hardly anyone is spared from having to leave familiar shores behind at some point.

The real question is:

Do we do it reluctantly - as victims of circumstance?

Or consciously - because we are willing to expand the boundaries of what is possible for us again and again?

As in nature

When I think about change, I often think of a garden.

For something new to grow, something sometimes has to be cut back.

Old branches that no longer leave space for light.

Only then does room appear for air, movement, and new growth.

And it is the same for us.

When we change, we do not automatically lose parts of ourselves.

Our experiences remain.
Our values remain.

We do not become less.

Often, we simply become clearer.

LUMA – It begins in you

Mini exercise

Take a moment and think about a change in your life that you initiated yourself.
Perhaps a decision that felt courageous at the time.

Ask yourself three simple questions:

• What motivated you back then?
• What changed in your life because of it?
• What did you learn about yourself in the process?

Sometimes it is only in hindsight that we realize how important these steps were for our own path.

Reflection question

Where in your life are you still holding on to the sentence: “That’s just the way I am”?