Cities
Impermanence, Living with Change, Calmly
04 Feb 2026
Life quietly shapes us through the adjustments we make, the discomforts we accept, and the changes we learn to live with. To help you embrace impermanence, consider daily practices like mindfulness and reflection, which cultivate calm acceptance and resilience.
Nothing lasts forever; the only constant in life is change.
“न कुछ स्थायी है, न कुछ निश्चित—परिवर्तन ही जीवन का नियम है।”
This understanding did not come to me through scriptures or philosophy. It emerged through life itself.
Learning Change Before Naming It
During my school years, my education was rooted in a regional language and Hindi. When my undergraduate studies shifted to English, the transition was challenging but formative. In the early days, I wrote English in Hindi script, relied on notes from friends, and learned by gradually piecing together meaning. There was discomfort and self-awareness, but also quiet determination.
Language barrier never became an obstacle. Instead, it became a training ground. Learning the language alongside the subject demanded patience, discipline, and consistency, qualities that later proved essential far beyond academics. Progress was slow, but real. Over time, confidence replaced hesitation.
What initially felt like a limitation became a capability. It taught me how to learn amid uncertainty, adapt without frustration, and move forward without being defeated by temporary gaps. More importantly, it reshaped how I relate to unfamiliar situations not as threats, but as phases.
Reflection: Before I understood impermanence, life was already preparing me to live with it.
Resilience Born of Impermanence
Resilience rarely announces itself. It forms quietly when circumstances are unclear, resources are limited, and progress requires patience rather than certainty. Long before I could articulate it, resilience was shaping how I learned, adapted, and moved forward.
Growing up in Dhorimanna, and later adapting to life in Jodhpur, Mumbai, and eventually London, I moved through continuous shifts of place, role, comfort, resources, and relationships. Each phase required releasing something familiar to meet what the moment demanded, reinforcing the understanding that nothing, status, security, or circumstance, remains fixed.
At the time, these transitions did not feel instructional; they felt inevitable. Moving from a joint family to living independently for work further affirmed this pattern. Certainty reduced, responsibility increased, and stability had to be generated internally rather than inherited from structure.
When I moved to the United Kingdom, impermanence presented itself on a larger scale: a new culture, new systems, unfamiliar ways of thinking. Yet the experience did not disturb my inner balance. Earlier transitions had already trained me to navigate change without fragmentation.
What allowed continuity amid change was not resistance, but alignment. Holding firmly to core beliefs while embracing local ways became a practical response to impermanence, not a compromise of identity. This clarity later enabled me to contribute meaningfully to building a community in London rooted in human values and mutual support.
Reflection: When impermanence is accepted rather than resisted, resilience becomes grounded instead of reactive.
When Life Reveals What Is Temporary
With resilience in place, impermanence became visible. Change was no longer an interruption; it was the pattern itself. Places shifted, roles evolved, and familiar structures dissolved, revealing that nothing in life remains fixed for long.
Travelling long distances with limited resources, consistently choosing necessity over comfort, and gradually moving from the back benches to the front rows revealed more profound truths. Positions, privileges, struggles, and successes are inherently temporary. Over time, this understanding dissolved the fear of missing out and strengthened my ability to remain composed amid uncertainty, responding thoughtfully rather than reacting emotionally.
This inner steadiness was tested during a challenging period in London, when I lost my job and lived with limited means for an extended time. To maintain your stability, focus on developing internal resources like gratitude, purpose, and adaptability. The situation was demanding, but it did not disrupt my sense of direction. I continued learning, stayed open to acquiring new skills, and approached each day with humility and honesty. Rather than resisting circumstances, I trusted that they would evolve, as all situations do.
Reflection: Impermanence did not create instability; it clarified where steadiness truly comes from.
Detachment Without Withdrawal
As impermanence became undeniable, detachment followed naturally, not as withdrawal, but as a disciplined way of engaging. Practice techniques such as observing your thoughts without attachment, focusing on effort rather than outcomes, and cultivating presence. It asks for full participation without attachment to outcomes that were never permanent to begin with.
Detachment, for me, never meant indifference. It meant remaining fully invested in effort while releasing the need to control results. Success and failure became phases rather than definitions of self. Roles changed, contexts shifted, outcomes evolved, but intent and values remained.
In leadership and in life, this perspective proved essential. Detachment preserved focus during uncertainty and balance during success. It allowed accountability without reactivity, and commitment without rigidity. By staying grounded in values rather than outcomes, growth became sustainable rather than episodic.
Reflection: Detachment did not distance me from life; it gave me the clarity to move through it.
Living as Practice
Through these experiences, life gently urged me to:
- Build resilience without hardness
- Accept impermanence without fear
- Practice detachment without disengagement
Together, they transformed everyday life into a lived practice of Karma Yoga, not an escape into monkhood, but full participation without ego attachment.
For me, spirituality is not about controlling life, but about moving with it strong enough to endure change, aware enough to accept it, and free enough to let go.
Quiet Learnings for a Spiritual Life
These are gentle reminders drawn from experience:
- When life shifts, stand before you understand
- Don’t treat a phase as your identity
- Learn slowly, but keep learning
- Respond more, react less
- Trust that life rearranges for a reason
When resilience prepares us, impermanence humbles us, and detachment frees us, spirituality becomes a practical something we live, not merely declare.
Closing Reflection
Life does not demand that we escape change; it invites us to grow through it. What shapes us most rarely arrives as a clear lesson. It comes quietly, through the adjustments we make and the discomforts we accept.
And in learning to live with change calmly, life itself becomes the teacher.
