The Practice of Change
As a yoga teacher, personal trainer and relationship/communication coach, I work with people who have a wide variety of needs and goals. However, all of them have one thing in common: they are seeking out support for a process of changing something in their lives.
It might be a desire to get out of pain; to manage stress and anxiety; or to find more effective ways to communicate with their loved ones. Regardless of the goal, there are consistent challenges that come up when seeking to make changes in one's life: maybe we feel we don't have the time to incorporate an important change in our lives. Maybe we worry it will mean letting go of certain things we've gotten comfortable with--and letting go is haaaard. Underneath it all, there seems to often be the fearful question: "what if I try to change, and find that I can't succeed?"
The psychology of habit change is a comforting resource in these moments.
Psychologist Albert Bandura is credited with what's known as the "Self-Efficacy Theory of Motivation." Bandura defines "self-efficacy" as as people’s belief in their ability to control their functioning and response to events that that effect their lives. His research shows that high self-efficacy has numerous benefits to daily life, such as resilience to adversity and stress, healthy lifestyle habits, and improved performance in important areas of their lives.
Habit change is a big part of this; seeing that our habits may not be serving us well may lead us to want to change them. And according to Bandura, the factor that most influences a person's success in making a change is what's called a Mastery Experience--watching yourself achieve something once, starts to build confidence in your ability to do it again. The cool thing is that even small actions--exercising for 10 minutes, getting yourself to bed at a healthy time, speaking up for yourself instead of allowing someone to cross your boundaries--can give you a Mastery Experience to build on.
Our culture really likes to celebrate the outer demonstration of success, without acknowledging the slow, hard process that is usually required to achieve it. We equate mis-steps with failure. But listen: your brain doesn't. At least not always. Do the damn thing once, and some part of you knows it for a while--at the very least, long enough for you to do it again, and then again, until you start to feel that this new change is an integrated part of you.
As we move into a new month, maybe you're beginning to consider a change or two in order to feel better physically, mentally or emotionally. So stoked for you! Start small. Keep going. It feels great to see that you can create a new experience for yourself.
Want support in making a change? Get in touch!
Wishing you all a happy August :)
Erin