Change is life -- and opportunity

Chicago Tribune (MCT) - My sister recently became a widow. Like most Americans, I'm stressed out by the collapse of Wall Street. Friends and colleagues in the newspaper industry have lost their jobs and their livelihoods.

And I might have to move my desk to the other side of the newsroom.

Changing cubicles isn't worth getting worked up about; at least I have a desk. But for the last four years my work space has been a predictable harbor in my ever-changing life. It's familiar and comfortable, a place where I can write about what I love or drop and do 10 push-ups without being seen.

For two days I worried about losing my prime real estate, my bookshelves and my routine. Then I called renowned psychologist and author Joan Borysenko, who reminded me that life is filled with all sorts of inevitable change _ and change is opportunity if we're hardy and resilient.

"It's whether we can cope with those changes or not that determines whether we will grow with the situation or be overcome by it, whether we will act helplessly or creatively," Borysenko wrote in her classic work "Minding the Body, Mending the Mind" (Da Capo, $16.95).

Hardiness, a concept coined by former University of Chicago researchers Salvatore Maddi and Suzanne Oulette, is an attitude. In their 1979 landmark study, mind-body pioneers Maddi and Oulette showed that people with a stress-hardy personality were less likely to get sick than those who had trouble coping with stressful living changes. Maddi, who went on to found a training center called the Hardiness Institute, and his team worked with 400 employees at Illinois Bell before the breakup of AT&T Corp. They found that nearly two-thirds of the employees fell apart emotionally and physically.

The one-third who thrived possessed a hardy attitude that included three char­acteristics: commitment, control and challenge.

Commitment, explained Borysenko, is our ability to be curious and involved with life.

Control, the opposite of helplessness, is the belief that we can make a positive difference in the world through action, rather than be a victim of circumstances.

And challenge is the belief that change is not a threat to security. Rather, it's the essence of life.

"Committed people who believe they are in control and expect life to be continuously in creative flux are likely to react to stressful events by increasing their interaction with them _ exploring, engaging with and learning from them," Borysenko wrote.

But in addition to having a hardy attitude, people coping with change also need resilience. When people are stressed out, the first thing that goes is the health habits.

"People smoke, drink too much or eat junk food because it gives them some gratification," said Borysenko in an interview. "The consequence is you're much less resilient."

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Fortunately, we can build up resiliency, according to researchers Dennis Charney and Steve Southwick, who studied former Vietnam prisoners of war who did not develop depression or post traumatic stress disorder.

They found that the POWs who coped best had 10 critical elements of resilience in their lives, including humor, physical fitness, a role model, social support, a mission or meaning in life, and a strong moral compass.

They also found that people can develop resiliency by meeting and overcoming challenges, training that high schools should include in health courses, Charney suggested.

Change is here.

Diseases such as breast cancer and heart disease, for example, may be preventable or even wiped out. We'll all have copies of our own complete DNA sequence incorporated into an electronic medical record that can be accessed from anywhere. And our grandchildren will live to be 140 years old (if obesity doesn't kill them first).

There's a sense of possibility that comes with change. And as long as I get to write about it, where I sit doesn't matter.

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(Contact the writer: jdeardorff@tribune.com )

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© 2008, Chicago Tribune.