Change isn't easy. It especially isn't easy if you're a Facebook devotee and your Facebook page is suddenly showing up with new tabs and links and other strange stuff that clutters up the screen.Problems with change are not a new concept for me. I'm a psychotherapist meeting with people daily who want to have a different kind of life than the life they have. They come in with stress, pain and problems and lay them down before me. What what they are saying -- in not so many words -- really is: "Take this problem away from me."
Somewhere along the line, it becomes clear that the problem won't magically disappear. There is some sort of change that needs to take place in the person's life to deal with the problem. It may be helpful to make a change in behavior, in perspective, in taking a positive risk or to otherwise address the problem in a new and fresh way.
But change isn't all that easy, even when you're a psychotherapist trained to understand change. I experienced this myself the other day when I logged into Facebook and noticed that lots of things on my page looked odd and unfamiliar.
I wasn't the only one to suffer. MSN even reported on the change and the backlash, and there's nearly one million people surging forth to join Facebook groups like Facebook: SWITCH BACK TO THE OLD NEWS FEED!!!
A Facebook friend sent instructions on how to return to the "old" display and I jumped on this information like a summer fly on a tasty picnic. I tapped in few key strokes and returned my page to the familiar view. Ah, yes. Then, feeling like a heroine and wallowing in my newly regained comfort, I shared my precious bit of knowledge with 200 of my closest Facebook friends. Judging by the number of posts that followed, I knew I wasn't the only subscriber rattled by change and relieved by familiarity.
Another sharp-eyed friend noticed that the return to the old display didn't pick up the new links that were added. So right now, I'm going with the "new" change and remembering that all change is really a challenge for us to discover new resources to meet it.
Sometimes those resources are friends and sometimes those resources are within ourselves. Sometimes they are both. Sometimes the life challenges are teeny and sometimes they are immense. However, all times we have the capacity to meet change and learn about ourselves.
