Wellness Series: A New Approach to New Beginnings Pt. 1

Key Points:

1. Fresh starts and new habits require a behavioural change.
2. Rather than changing the way we are designed, we can learn how to align ourselves with the way true change occurs.
3. We must understand how our psychology and biology work in order to approach behavioural change. 

Following my last post, the idea of finally resolving to do something differently or changing once and for all is certainly an alluring prospect and at this time of year, we feel the pull to change more acutely. One of the weird and wonderful parts about the phenomenon of human change is that while we can be quite resistant to change, at the same time, we are extraordinarily adaptable and resilient! As humans, we often find ourselves in a tug-of-war between where we want to be and where we are, or who we inspire to be, and who we are right now. 

The paradox is that while we don’t like change, we are in fact in a constant state of change, craving newness. As much as we desire consistency and predictability in our lives, change really is the only constant that we can depend on. As humans, we are changing every single second of our lives, physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. As we age, our experiences of every new day bring us insights that we simply did not have the day before. Even though we often have a fickle relationship with change, getting more familiar with the psychology that underpins this relationship can be transformative. The process of unpacking the science of change can help us become allies with the change process, to approach change more intelligently, and to finally make peace with ourselves at the same time. 

This is part two of my wellness series on everyday resiliency, wellness, and self-care in seasons of uncertainty adapted from my white papers. See robynehd.ca to read more topics on improving your work and life wellness.

BACK TO THE BASICS OF BEHAVIOUR CHANGE 

Fresh starts and new habits require a behavioural change. Whether we are changing our routines, ourselves, or our environment, our behaviour will need modification. While this seems simple enough, unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation regarding behaviour change! We are inundated with mixed messaging about how to engage real change and so we struggle to do so effectively. 

The truth is that the prevailing common-sense approach to behaviour change has a fatal flaw when it comes to understanding how our psychology and biology work. Many people start out with desires to reduce, minimize, lose, or decrease something (i.e., getting rid of stress, weight, screen time, negative thoughts, or substances). But this focus on what we don’t want creates a scarcity response in our brain, and from an evolutionary perspective, we are hard wired to fight against scarcity. 

Here is an example of how our biology is hardwired to refuse a scarcity approach to behaviour change: In an effort to lose weight, we decide to cut calories, but our body perceives the sudden lack of calories as a scarcity of sustenance; it then sends overwhelming signals to our brains to eat – eat anything and everything like our life depends on it! 

Rather than fighting with the way we are designed, we can learn how to align ourselves with the way true change occurs – through joy & abundance! In the above example, we instead choose to add more healthy and nutritionally sound foods and plenty of water into our eating behaviour. Our body feels nourished and satisfied. The same principle applies to exercise. If you exercise constantly and aggressively at maximum effort and intensity, your body perceives this as an indication that there is a terrible threat (like we are going to war!). This triggers a prolonged danger response and so our body’s metabolism slows down to conserve energy. Instead, choosing a variety of movement practices that actually feel good, physically and emotionally, and doing these consistently, will bring about the sustainable (lasting) changes we desire. 

Join me next week as I discuss practices that aid in finding a new approach to new beginnings.

Take good care my friends,

Dr. Robyne

Interested in this topic? Please join me next week as I discuss the third part of this wellness series, finding a new approach to new beginnings part two.