Impermanence: everything passes, even this

Suffering often comes from wanting what's pleasant to last, and what's difficult to disappear. Impermanence says otherwise: everything is in motion, always.

Buddhist traditions place impermanence at the heart of their teaching. Not as a depressing truth, but as a liberation. If everything passes, today's pain passes too. If everything changes, the moment of joy deserves to be fully lived now, not stored for later.

Tolle writes that most human suffering comes from an unconscious resistance to change. We cling to what was, or we anxiously anticipate what will be, and we miss what is.

The practice: The next time you're going through something difficult, ask: "In a year, will this still exist?" Not to minimize it, but to remind yourself that you are not caught in this moment forever.