#26 - How to Train Ourselves to Better Accept Change

Another year ahead, another set of resolutions.

It’s that time of the year again when people are so driven & motivated to finally make some major changes in their lives. There’s something about starting a new year that inspires people to do better & be better by changing their mindset, way of living, lifestyle. However, as the months & months go by, what used to be a passionate heart for new things & change comes falling back to the same old patterns yet again. 

Why is that? Why is it that no matter how much we want to change, we just keep falling back to same patterns or same mistakes? Why is it so difficult to be firm with the changes we want to see in ourselves? As a matter of fact, it can be the most difficult thing we can ever experience as human beings. 

Well, let me explain from a neuroscience standpoint. 

Neuroscience Made Simple

Our brains are made up of 100 billion neurons – these neurons are what stores & transmits information in our brains. Every time we learn something new, sing a new song, play a new sport or cook a new meal, these neurons change connections. 

To make it simple, let’s take learning to play the piano as an example. You get to learn more info on the piano and how it works, what the different notes are & how to play it, how to create a melody, when to hit a note & when to stop. All these separate info activate different parts of our brains. Once activated a couple of times, new connections are made – a new pathway is created, or a neural pathway as they call it.

Now, as you keep doing this new activity over & over, this neural pathway becomes clearer, wider & stronger. Our brain, then, learns exactly what needs to be done. Everything’s coming out more naturally, that you don’t even have to fully focus to perform the task, the pathway just activates all necessary parts without your conscious control. 

Creating Change

Now, the question remains. How do we change now that we know all these things? How do we better accept the challenges & difficulties of change?

First things first, accept that change is hard. It’s not because you’re incompetent or lazy. Again, there’s the neuroscience behind it. So, stop beating yourself up every time you falter or fail. It’s normal. We’ve learned this.

Secondly, even though change is hard, it is not impossible. Meaning, it can still be done. You can still achieve that change. With the right attitude, timing & persistence, you can make it happen. 

We can help:

Our mission at Thriving Lifestyles factory is to normalize some of the behaviours and failures that we all go through on our road to making changes for our self.

With this we can hopefully assist you on creating more self awareness and help you through this difficult journey that we are all on together.

I want to leave you with this:

Change is hard and new things are scary, but we have to do them anyways.