I have a few friends who like to rearrange the furniture in their houses. They may move their reading chair in their bedroom to a different spot so they can catch the natural light that pours in from a window. Or maybe they move the couch in the living room to create a different traffic pattern.  They might decide to rearrange the furniture in a room to divide the space between two areas such as the living room from the kitchen or simply to create more open space. Whatever the reason, they find that rearranging some of the furniture in a room makes a positive difference.

              Homeostasis

Homeostasis is something our bodies crave. Simply stated, homeostasis is what we do to regulate and maintain stability within the systems of our bodies. When our bodies are destabilized, we will most likely need to rearrange our lives in order to bring our bodies back into a stable state. 

For instance, our normal body temperature is about 98.6. But when under an attack from a virus, our body temperature may rise indicating a breakdown in our normal and stable condition. In order to get well, to come back to a stable state, we need to rearrange our schedules so we can stay at home and rest. The sooner we tune in to what we need and accommodate that need, the sooner our body will return to its stable state.

Not only does our body crave balance, but so do our brains. But what are some of the events or circumstances that  destabilize our normal, restful, and sane flow of thinking? What distracts us from maintaining a state of mental wellness? 

Let’s set aside obvious reasons for mental instability such as alcohol or drug addiction and agree that alcohol abuse or addiction to any drug simply leads to crazy making. 

Without those two factors, what else leads to brain or thought imbalances? 

Suffering from loss is possibly the strongest destabilizer in our lives. By the time we reach adulthood, we’ve all experienced at least one loss; a child, a spouse, a job, a pet, a home, our innocence, maybe even our physical health. 

Suffering from a loss quickly reminds us that we are not in control. Loss also tempers our arrogant thinking and if we allow it to, it can rearrange our thinking from something old to something new.

We could become entrenched and bitter as a result of our loss or we can use the experience of loss to rearrange our thinking and discover a new way of being.

Why bother to rearrange? Suffering from loss is universal. It happens to us all. It has the potential to destabilize us and make us bitter or it has the potential to cause us to rearrange old patterns of thinking into new thoughts that stabilize us. The choice is always ours to make.