By: Azriele Harris, Well-Being Program Coordinator, Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, and a Mason alumna with a master’s degree in Forensic Science
“Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.” – Seth Godin
During times of transition, we may experience mixed emotions such as happiness, sadness, confusion, and doubt. All the emotions that transition times trigger in us result from the stress of dealing with an uncertain future. However, we don’t need to fear or try to escape from changes in our lives. We can grow in significant ways through transitions, despite how stressful they can be. Here’s how to manage transitions in ways that support our well-being.
Transition times can involve all sorts of changes, depending on our circumstances. For college students, a transition may happen when we simply move to the next semester with a new schedule, or it may occur when we graduate and begin our careers. At any point in life, we may experience transitions such as beginning a new relationship, starting a new job, moving to a new area, and much more!
Times of transition require us to be self-aware, because our initial feelings of sadness, happiness, confusion, and doubt can lead us to unhealthy habits and harm our mental health. If we don’t process our difficult emotions well, they can decrease our motivation for practices that benefit our well-being (exercising, journaling, etc.) while fueling unhealthy practices (isolation from others, inadequate sleep, etc.) They can even lead us to suffer from depression or anxiety.
It is important to note that life transitions are not always planned or predictable. Some life transitions occur unexpectedly due to life changes such as the loss of a job or loved one, marriage/divorce, or developing an illness. Despite how the transition occurs, with the right well-being and self-care practices, we can remain in a consistently positive state of mind while undergoing changes.
Well-Being Practices for Transition Times
Here are some well-being practices that may help ease the turmoil of negative emotions during transition times.
Maintain a good support system: A good support system is imperative, as the people within our circles will offer us support when confronting the negative feelings we may experience. Researchers propose that having a good support system helps in times of transition by providing emotional support through people listening to our problems and offering encouragement and/or solutions, as well as through people engaging in enjoyable activities we us.
Maintain consistent routines: When we go through changes, those changes cause stress in our lives, so keeping consistent routines in other aspects of our lives helps us assert some form of control. Some ways to maintain a consistent routine are:
- Exercising at a gym
- Getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night
- Eating nutritious meals
Here are several research-backed tools to help build and maintain healthy routines in our lives.
Develop patience and understanding: Patience and understanding are important when it comes to times of transition because these traits allow us to give ourselves grace while going through change. Being patient and understanding with ourselves can be simply:
- Accepting that transitions are a part of life and they do not necessarily lead to negative outcomes
- Understanding that trying to avoid transitions does nothing but prolong the inevitable
- Not rushing ourselves to be ready when the transition is over
Often when a transition happens, we expect there to be a plan in place following the transition. However, as long as we are patient and understanding with ourselves, everything will fall into place.
In conclusion, everyone experiences times of transition that may lead to intense stress. To alleviate this stress, it is important to develop practices that can support our well-being when we are going through change. Going through times of transition can be overwhelming, but at the end of the journey, we often find we have grown and learned more about ourselves!
Additional Resources
This article explains the various times when a person may experience transition, with examples of how to cope with the transition experience.
This article discusses graduation transitioning strategies.
This YouTube video discusses ways to approach change well.
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