Caregiving Highlights the Impermanence of Life’s Journey

By Angela Lunde (Mayo Clinic)

Impermanence is the recognition that nothing lasts for long. The truth is that change is occurring daily for each of us: in our bodies, our relationships, our responsibilities, our experiences, what we do, how we do it, our sense of security, identity, love, purpose, self-worth, and control.

Priorities shift, people grow older, flowers bloom and wilt, a pleasant day quickly becomes an unpleasant day. Impermanence is the name of the game.

Most caregivers experience impermanence in their emotional highs and lows. They may feel calm one moment, anxious the next, discouraged one day, encouraged the next.

That’s because no particular thought, emotion, or physical sensation lasts forever. When you’re in a certain frame of mind though, it can feel like things will never change. But if we can learn to embrace that all mental states and all experiences are temporary and impermanent, it may provide us the fuel to face what life is throwing our way.

The unpleasant will change and so will those things in our life that bring us pleasure and that we often cling to. When we accept this, it becomes possible to nurture patience and ease when things aren’t going so well. And during pleasurable moments, we know to fully enjoy them with intense gratefulness, aware that they too will fade.

“It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not.” — Thich Nhat Hanh