How to find peace in a confusing period of life

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Happy Sunday and thank you for opening this week’s #TheLifeofJLOWE newsletter! I’m back from my trip to New York City & Boston, and excited for the next few weeks of rehearsals as we lead up to Miami Carnival Panorama 2024!

Last year was my first time playing Panorama here in Miami, and I’m super pumped to be able to play again this year! See if you can spot me in this clip from last year!

In other news, I journaled last night for the first time in about two weeks, and started by reading older journal entries. Reflecting on how I felt in the months leading up to leaving my job, or how I felt about starting my job after graduating, the thought that I came back to - as I always do through these moments of reflection - is that the only constant in the past year has been change.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a book called “The Way Forward” that randomly caught my attention in a book store. It’s not a novel, but rather a collection of thoughts and poems, and I usually carry it around with me and flip to a random page and read it for inspiration. Here’s a link to the book if you’re interested:

When I flipped open the book this morning, the page it landed on was this one:

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Embracing change as a constant

As I go through the next few months of soul-searching, self-exploration and discovery, something that I’m carrying with me is this idea of letting go of the need to control everything that happens in my life and embracing new perspectives, ideas and possibilities.

As that quote in the picture above implies, as I look back at the past year, I’m grateful. This current moment that could have come with possible confusion and chaos is so much easier now that I have done the work of embracing change.

As a self-proclaimed type-A personality, I know that I always want to know what’s coming next. I always want to have a plan, and I never want to take the risk of moving into a space that I can’t predict. I’m pretty risk averse, and I never want to find myself in a place where I feel like I don’t know my next move.

Since resigning, I’ve consistently shared that the world is my oyster. And it is. But having the world as your oyster can be overwhelming, because there’s pearls everywhere, and it forces you to be decisive in what you want to do next. At the same time though, it’s exactly the opposite of what I described in the paragraph above.

It’s a space that I can’t predict. It’s a place where I feel like I don’t know my next move.

But…that’s exactly the point.

For someone like me, who is calculated, planned and organized to the T, not being exactly sure as to what my next step in my career will be is exactly what I need. Of course, I’ll find things to keep myself busy on a day to day basis (because I’ll be damned if I sleep all day) - whether it’s working on my Youtube channel, learning video editing and content creation skills, or revamping my newsletter - but having months ahead of me where I can be spontaneous and explore my interests with no reservations is what I’ve been looking for in the past few years.

Another quote from The Way Forward is:

For me, letting go of control and embracing change doesn’t mean letting go of ambition and motivation. It meant allowing the space to exist for change to flow. It means becoming comfortable with doing something that I could’ve never predicted.

To be more relatable with this, think about making spur of the moment plans with a close friend. Those spontaneous plans are often the most exciting, and they can only happen if you’re free to allow them to happen. With a jam packed schedule, you might never find yourself doing some of the most fun things in your life.

It’s the same on a macro-level, when it comes to being able to experience bigger things like new career prospects or lifelong interests.

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Conclusion

Being unable to embrace change is a signal of ego at work. The ego seeks to control, so it’s naturally at odds with the idea of impermanence. When I notice that my ego is at work, I always like to take a step back to ensure that I’m listening and understanding why.

We never want to portray a character marred by ego and arrogance so blatantly that we are unable to appreciate difference and change.

Furthermore, throughout the week ahead, think about how your past actions have prepared you for the very moment that you’re in right now, and be grateful for that. Be grateful that you made that mistake a few years ago so that you could learn from it and approach a situation differently today. Be grateful that that job rejected you so that you can be working somewhere that appreciates you today. Or be grateful that you made the decision to leave a toxic situation so that you could heal and embrace more of what you want in life.

As we go through life, over and over we’ll realize that the only constant is change. We as people will change, and the people around us will change. The childhood places we remember so fondly will change, the colleges we went to will change and the very fabric of the society that we live in will change.

It serves you best to flow with change, instead of fearing and fighting it. Appreciate how you are changing, and how the people and world around you are changing too.

You will not only find so much more peace, but also be able to embrace growth so much more abundantly when you recognize that there really and truly is no existence without change.

Until next Sunday,

Justin