Making Meaningful Changes
A Quick & Effective Recipe for Choosing & Guiding New Changes in Your Life
What does it mean to transform your life, and how do you get there with all the options available to anyone with something like Google at your disposal (let alone the myriad of retreats!)?
Does it sometimes seem like today’s wealth of information is just too much to make use of? Neuroplasticity, Behavioral Science, Quantum Physics, heck, even the art of changing habits gets thrown into this varied bag of tricks when it comes to exploring new potential in your life. But it’s rarely easy to quickly comprehend, let alone put these concepts to use.
In truth, it can be overwhelmingly complex. With a good number of abstract concepts, and contextual patterns relative to mental, emotional and behavioral activities <yikes>, it's quite the brain twister and it's just a bit much for most.
However, when simplified, it involves engaging and having the experience of these concepts using straight forward exercises. This allows you to gain a real working knowledge - one that can be applied in your every day life. To "know" how something works is that process we call learning, but to engage what you have learned is when the knowledge takes hold, supporting your personal growth, enabling you to experience that which was previously out of reach.
SO...
When you are ready to embark on exploring a change in your life, it helps if it can be easily consumed and engaged.
Here’s the good news; the mere intention to change anything in your life, in big or small ways, is where it all begins! Next, get connected with the inspiration for this change. Focus on it enough that you are present to a strong personal desire that really calls you, or better yet, a powerful yearning. We all need some good fuel for the journey through change, and by deliberately connecting with your inspiration the changes you seek are more easily attained.
It’s actually surprising how straightforward the process can be. Often we already have reasons in our thoughts for why we can’t achieve our objective, or make the changes we desire. The first major step, if you are aware that you have nay-sayers in the back of your mind, is to write down the cynical thoughts. Get them on paper! This is step one, or step 3, 5, 22 - whenever you get present to feelings of “it can’t be done” or “there’s no way I can do this”.
Now that we’ve got paper and pen/pencil handy, here’s the next step, and it’s quite simple.
Envision your change!
Focus on and examine what most inspires you about the change you want to make. This can start by writing down how your life looks AFTER you have completed making the change. Put some of those details down, both in your physical reality, and also how it will feel. Describe these things.
This is not a hard exercise, and it’s not voodoo. Science has shown us that this simple process makes a real difference in the results you get when you engage change.
The exact reasons for this are still being explored, but here is what I can tell you from my own experience. Doing this exercise is like reprogramming yourself! Afterwards, when you engage in your daily activities, the ideas and inspiration you wrote down are now automatically operating in the background of your consciousness. They impact the choices you make and the actions you take, naturally guiding your life down a path that leads toward the changes you seek!
Now change is quite natural!
Don’t take my word for it. Try It On! You then discover, through experience, how focusing on a clear intention (your inspirations) shapes your behavior - which, like a rudder, sets the direction of your life.
Here’s why it is so easy. You already have a persistent set of behaviors (or habits), but these are typically founded in outdated, subconscious choices that do not serve your personal values - what truly inspires you. Unfortunately, until you bring this part of yourself into the light of day, by writing down what you want to change and what that end state will produce, there is not much that will change in your life - except by the causes of external circumstances (a natural part of life, of course!).
If you do take on change with the intentional focus of your desires, then the process of giving them some real attention will actively, almost automagically, engage them in your life, allowing you to more easily set a new course. This aligns your life's direction with your own personal intention, guided by your own inspirations and your dreams! You will be amazed by what is possible with this proven formula.
Life is Change!
Life is always changing, and you can only resist or play safe in a comfortable place for so long before the inevitable changes comes uninvited. Knowing and accepting this most powerful aspect of how Life literally operates through persistent change, we can explore and engage life so that we are guiding and riding this great and constant wave, turning the unexpected into more of an intention, moving our lives from that of the victim to one of creation!
Finally, since life is always changing, always expect the unexpected! When seeking a change in your life, remember, change would not be change if it brought about exactly what we thought it should!
ACTIVITY ( Recipe)
This is straightforward, you don’t have to complete it all in one sitting, and once you have completed this writing activity, the work start to work by simply being inspired by what you wrote.
Get some paper, pen/pencil, or your favorite electronic device.
Write down what it is you would like to change. Perhaps create a brief title and then write a short description.
Next there are two steps:
Write down some specific physical details that you would see around you if the change you wanted took place. This can be a new garden with specific flowers in the back yard, or the color of the new house/car you have acquired. Write down as many details as you can - but make sure they are all inspiring to you!
Write down the feeling you now have when this change has been completed. What is it like picking flowers from your garden, how do you feel! Get present to that feeling - close your eyes and imagine yourself in the garden. Notice how you feel and start picking some words/phrases that describe it, like relaxed, moved by the simple beauty of the garden, pleased by what you built, pleasant.
Bonus writing - what is possible now that the change is completed. In other words, after you have taken the time to do exercise 2 above, imagine what else might occur as possible, that wasn’t possible before, now that the desired change is completed. (Note: This is a creative part, you should be inspired by the thoughts that come up, but if nothing occurs as a new feeling outside of what you already wrote down, no worries, this just means there is nothing to add at this time!)
Life Quote
Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
VIDEO
This is a fascinating video covering some basics around change, why we resist it, and what makes it so awesome when it is embraced!