
2025 has begun with significant tumult, upheaval and tragedy in the global context. Change may be a challenge in the best of times. Our capacity for adapting to change in our personal sphere or in the macrocosm is directly related to our ability to open to something new. And how well - and fast - we can adapt to change will impact our wider circles significantly, not to mention our health, happiness, and wholeness.

Categories of Change we might experience might be described as:
Life-Jolting
Vocational
Lifestyle
Transformative

Life-Jolting change comes with death, natural disaster, health diminishment, relational severance, violence, war, or political upheaval, for example. Vocational change occurs when what we do professionally or as a volunteer shifts either within our work-world, or actually changes into something new. Lifestyle change reflects personal change like time allocation, habits, and personal preferences or appearance. Transformative change happens when there is a shift in our world-view, outlook, identity, religious or spiritual purview. Change is catalyzed sometimes by internal (personal) factors, and often by external conditions. And it can rock our boat.
How long does it take us to effect change or adapt to change?

We can get a rough idea about how long it takes us to change with a little calculus. The mathematical formula for Rate of Change (ROC) is well-known: ROC = (X1-X2)/(T1-T2), where (X1-X2) is the change in variable being measured and (T1-T2) is the amount of time it took for the change to happen.
Let's start with an easy example. For New Year's, I made a resolution to do some push-ups for increasing upper body strength. In the beginning of January, I could do 10 diamond push-ups. In the last week of January, I could do 100 diamond push-ups. What is my rate of change? Here we go:
Change in Ability: Change in Time (in weeks):
10 push-ups 0
100 push-ups 4
ROC = (100-10=90)/(4-0=4) OR 90/4 = 22.5

Doing diamond push-ups might fall in the "Lifestyle Change" category above. Measuring our ability to change to something in the "Life-Jolting Change" category is different. Losing a significant loved one, for example, or adapting to the effects of natural destruction, a political regime-change or displacement through political and violent upheaval can take much longer.
At what rate do humans change in comparison with Nature? And at what rate do we change with respect to technology?
Compared with Nature, humans have the capacity to change significantly faster. And the effects of human causes of natural change are measured at 170 times faster. Those who conduct research using the "Anthropocene Equation" note the impact of intense human activity on Earth exponentially exceeds that of natural events spread across millennia. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/12/humans-causing-climate-to-change-170-times-faster-than-natural-forces?CMP=share_btn_url

Compared with technology, however, we are slow turtles. At this writing, it seems the fastest microprocessor in the world operates at 6.2 GHz/second. Technology changes at rates well beyond our capacity to adapt, and there is evidence that the rate of change in the ascendancy of AI will continue to outpace us exponentially. Even as we age, our ability to process information, weigh alternatives rationally, and make sound decisions decreases at a rate proportionate to our age.

So, wait. What now? How well and how fast are we able to adapt in 2025? We have been experiencing "Life-Jolting Change" on a global scale. And we are not adapting at a significant rate of change that will be noticeable for decades, maybe even centuries. Sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, anger, hostility, inability to focus, retain information, relax, and lower our threshold for over-reaction are all noticeable in the wake of such tumultuous change. And we may feel like slow tortoises racing the hare of over-stimulation and excessive stress.

Our understandable response may be to over-compensate and change faster, faster, faster, leaving little time/capacity for critical reflection and diligent care to effect change that is sustainable and healthy for the biosphere, much less ourselves.
Neurotransmitters in our brains do the heavy lifting of adapting to change. They help us by "exciting, inhibiting, or modulating" target cells to behave a certain way.
"What action or change do neurotransmitters transmit to the target cell?
Neurotransmitters transmit one of three possible actions in their messages, depending on the specific neurotransmitter.
Excitatory. Excitatory neurotransmitters “excite” the neuron and cause it to “fire off the message,” meaning, the message continues to be passed along to the next cell. Examples of excitatory neurotransmitters include glutamate, epinephrine and norepinephrine.
Inhibitory. Inhibitory neurotransmitters block or prevent the chemical message from being passed along any farther. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glycine and serotonin are examples of inhibitory neurotransmitters.
Modulatory. Modulatory neurotransmitters influence the effects of other chemical messengers. They “tweak” or adjust how cells communicate at the synapse. They also affect a larger number of neurons at the same time." (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22513-neurotransmitters)

Analogously, if we think of those contexts/stimuli that excite, inhibit, or prevent our ability to effect change, we begin to understand that there are better and less helpful contexts/stimuli. Nature immersion is healthy for adaptive change. By contrast, we are aware that excessive use of technology/social media addiction, among other traditional stimulants and depressants that have been over-used and abused, serve to speed up or excite, or seriously inhibit or impair our ability to adapt to change healthfully. We need modulation, moderating factors to assist us in "tweaking" our adaptive response time and strategies. Again, Nature can help that.

If we soak ourselves in Nature, everything slows to a rate that allows us to breathe, to listen, to experience wonder and gratitude, to think and process clearly. We foster creativity and openness through full-sensory receptivity, learning at a rate that is conducive to our health. If we imitate Nature's rate of change, we become aware that our adaptive capacities draw on the tensile strength of a wide web of life, offering nourishment, mutual benefit and protection, and leading to resiliency and growth. Yes. Slow down. Reflect. Think. Go Deeper. Our ability to adapt to change requires this rate adjustment. And our global community will benefit proportionately.
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