Brennan Smith, the voice behind the tracks here at Natural Hypnosis, talks about change in this video - specifically how we change, what are the dynamics of change, and what to do when we run into obstacles to change - (which we almost always do).
Please enjoy the video, followed by the transcript:
How Do We Change? These are the Dynamics of Human Change.
Our topic today is the dynamics of human change. This is what Olympic level coaches refer to as performance cycles in their athletes any time they go and try a new approach to their sport.
The same thing happens in any human change. We see it all the time in our private hypnotherapy clients.
We want to make sure you understand exactly how this works, so that you can make it work for you.
Here is how change happens.
We all start out with a baseline of behavior. Back when you first made a change, you had to decide first to make that change. And that decision point was there on the baseline of behavior.
As your conscious mind was saying to you 'I know there's a better way; I know life can be better and I want that!'.
And that thought, and the thoughts you think after that are positive, and the positive actions you take, and the positive influences that you surround yourself with will lead you through that curve of change and will take you to a new place. ANd that's a wonderful feeling.
But you've also probably experienced that time in any change cycle when you're still doing all the positive things, but there seems to be a plateau.
For the person wanting to lose some weight, this happens when they're still doing all the right things, eating all the right foods, but they are not dropping the pounds anymore like they were so quickly at the beginning.
Or somebody starting a new pattern of going to the gym , or starting a new pattern of stopping procrastination(and this video I recently made will help you understand how procrastination works) or insomnia, or any other habit change - we're still doing all the right things, but it seems like we're just maintaining - it's not getting better.
That's natural. This is a checks and balances system. Your unconscious at this moment in the cycle, is building a new baseline for you as a way of comparing it to the previous baseline.
Which means, when that time comes to make a new decision, when you've established a new baseline, when you're ready to make a new decision, you're ready to launch to a new level - first, your unconscious will create resistance.
This is just like your mind wanting to test out the old behavior vs. the new. And that's is how it usually shows for people.
- The insomniac will suddenly have a really rough night of sleep.
- The person changing their procrastination habit will all of a sudden put something off for an entire day or two days, and just hit a wall where they don't feel like doing anything.
- Whatever it is, all of a sudden that person who is making all those great changes will do something that resembles the way things used to be.
This is usually around a two and a half week mark in any change cycle.
There's two possible responses that you can have when resistance comes.
The one that you've probably experienced in the past, and that most people have experienced because they don't know this information, is: they've beat themselves up.
- I've screwed up.
- I'm such an idiot I can't believe I did that old behavior, I thought I was past all that.
And they talk themselves out of it, they beat themselves up, and pretty soon the repetition of the negative happens multiple times, and they've right back where they started.
That's the essence of yo-yo dieting, that's the essence of people making decisions that don't stick.
Here's your opportunity to do things differently:
Option number two is recognizing, wait a minute, 'that's just my natural resistance. It's just my natural checks and balances system. I was supposed to hit a wall right now at a two and a half week mark. There's a reason they say it takes three weeks to form a habit - because only when you've got past this, that you've really formed that new habit.'
So all you have to do - keep putting in the positive. Stay with those positive influences, stay with those positive actions.
- Even if you don't feel like it - just do it!
- And even if you fall flat on your face and do the old behavior - get back on your horse and keep doing the positive behaviors, because you will launch to that next level.
And when you do, you will plateau again, there will be resistance again in the future...
But this time, when you fall down, or when you test out the old behavior, you'll only be coming back to the level where you are now.
And then keep putting in the positive and keep going to the next level.
These are the dynamics of human change. This is performance cycles, this is the way we're wired, it's OK to feel resistance every now and then.
Just keep going... You're doing great - enjoy your journey! - and then read this follow up post.
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