Learning To Trust The Ebb and Flow of Change
Life moves in rhythms - advancing, retreating, returning again. This reflection considers why we resist change and how learning to trust the ebb and flow of life can create space for growth and renewal.
Sue Leighton
2/24/20261 min read
Change is rarely comfortable.
Even when we know something is no longer working, even when part of us senses it’s time to move forward, there can be a tightening - a quiet resistance that whispers, stay where it’s safe.
Holding on often feels easier than letting go.
From a psychological perspective, this makes sense. Our nervous system is wired to prefer the familiar. Familiarity signals safety, even when what we’re holding onto no longer serves us. The known, however imperfect - feels more predictable than the unknown.
Letting go can stir subtle but powerful fears:
What if I lose something I need?
What if nothing else comes?
Who will I be without this?
These questions are not signs of weakness. They are signs of protection. Yet life has a habit of nudging us, whether we are ready or not. Sometimes it makes sense to move on our own terms, rather than having change make the move for us.
Nature offers us a quieter lesson.
The tide never clings to the shore. It moves in rhythm - advancing, retreating, returning again. When it pulls back, it does not signal retreat. It signals movement. What withdraws is not lost; it is part of a larger pattern.
Every wave carries both an ending and a beginning.
When we resist change entirely, we can find ourselves holding on too tightly - to roles, relationships, identities, expectations. Sometimes what we are holding onto once helped us feel steady. Sometimes it genuinely kept us safe. But over time, resistance can become limiting, even stifling.
Trusting the ebb and flow of life does not mean forcing yourself to release what you are not ready to release. It does not mean bypassing grief or pretending uncertainty feels comfortable.
It means recognising that movement is natural.
There are seasons of holding.
There are seasons of softening.
There are seasons where something recedes so that something else can emerge.
Learning to live in rhythm rather than in resistance - is a gradual process. It begins with awareness. With noticing where you an urge for movement. With gently asking yourself whether the tide is already shifting.
You do not have to rush the wave.
You do not have to manufacture change.
But you can begin to trust that life, like the ocean, moves in cycles.
And there is always another wave. 🌊