How hard is it to implement positive changes? Changes that stick? HARD!!! I have spent my 30+ year career in the field of healthy behavior change. Well-being, fitness, nutrition, posture alignment, various forms of meditation, mental health, emotional health – geez…a lot to manage!! Yikes!
You can read a quick synopsis of the 8 Foundations in the illustration to the right, but this is only a glimpse of what they are and the power they hold. They are best applied in a specific order, one feeding into the next:
- Metacognition
- Mindfulness
- Growth Mindset
- Neuroplasticity
- Self-Efficacy
- Internal Locus of Control
- Psychological Flexibility
- Self-Regulation
The final primary goal is to create a higher level of self-regulation. Low self-regulation has grave affects and results in the following alarming truths:
- Violence
- Stealing
- Addiction
- Obesity
- Conflict
- Debt
Imagine if your ability to self-regulate (especially your words) was improved by only 20%. Would your life be different? Unquestionably.
It does not matter what it is – every type of behavior change begins with awareness. Through a set of circumstances, or consequences, you have come to a point where you know at a visceral level – something HAS to change. Maybe you have come to this place many times over the same behavior that you want to expunge from your life.
Here is a simplified process (more will be written in additional blog articles):
- Pay attention to your thoughts – especially when you feel angst or frustration. Observe without judgment.
- Stay in the moment (Mindfulness). Our power to choose is only in this exact moment.
- Begin to create new neural connections with new questions (Growth Mindset).
- Neuroplasticity begins. New thoughts, different words, actions follow.
- Set one small goal. Be 95% sure that it will happen. Success will motivate to move to the next small goal which gives you confidence (Self-Efficacy).
- Multiple successes in the small stuff with lead to confidence in the bigger stuff (Internal Locus of Control).
- Consistency, how often, is of much more valuable for lasting change than how long you practice. Staying in pursuit of where you want to go while in the presence of discomfort or pain – this is Psychological Flexibility; it is one of the most potent and effective practices to move you forward.
- At this point, you are down the road in the change you are making. A higher degree of Self-Regulation will be your result.
Keep this in mind: you have to choose your hard! Life is difficult. Be fat and unhealthy OR eat healthy and feel better in your body. Spend less than you make and save OR be in debt. Move your body OR become less and less able to move. Either side of these choices carry their own costs.
WHAT COST ARE YOU WILLING TO PAY?
