Retrain your brain for successful Change
"Change can be a good thing."
breaking out of comfort zones may be more complex than we all realize.
Whatever change we are going through in life, no matter how ready we are to make this change, we may find ourselves struggling to adjust or acclimate beyond the initial motivational period.
Why?! Because change is scary. Change creates stress and our body HATES stress. The body likes to maintain a controlled environment, aka homeostasis. This is why change can feel so good yet so bad simultaneously. Confusing, I know.
Our brain favors familiarity. We do what makes us comfortable, and we avoid anything that causes pain. Leaning toward comfortability is an innate response from our brain. As we age, our brains forms pathways, and they will always take “the path of least resistance." Our brain becomes accustomed to trained behaviors. Think about how hard it will be to train your brain from years and years of overeating, emotional eating, or restrictive dieting.
Introducing new behaviors into this well-working system stimulates survival mode. It makes the change we are trying to commit to even more challenging.
CHANGE DOES BENEFIT US.
Although a challenge, change will stimulate and encourage your brain to adapt to new behaviors. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks following these steps:
1.) Understand that you will be frustrated at times. Accept that frustration and continue to work through it. Give yourself positive feedback knowing that you must go through some demanding and rough times to adapt to the change. Keep working on it. It won't be comfortable at first; you may feel like you are failing. KNOW you are not perfect, and failure is an opportunity to learn and grow through the struggle.
2.) Get out of your comfort zone. Do a new task that you never thought you would do. Perhaps you have been walking on the treadmill - try a run. Get into a new kickboxing or Zumba class. Challenge yourself in resistance training. Find areas where you lack, then work on THAT area. Try a new thing that makes you confident to try new things.
3.) Know the more you change, the more confident you will be. When far fetched dreams become your reality, confidence SOARS. When you look in the mirror and smile at yourself, CONFIDENCE SOARS. This extends far beyond fitness and into your overall LIFE. Challenging yourself in a new light will give you the conviction to challenge yourself in all areas where you want to improve - professionally, educationally , financially, emotionally. It is all intertwined.
4.) Learn to succeed by viewing your previous failures as learning opportunities. Perhaps vacation came and you weren't as prepared as intended. Look back on that and see what could have been done differently to avoid recurring downfalls.
5.) Keep a positive mindset. Talking bad about yourself limits you in so many ways. It plays into the thought that, "I can't do this." Keep telling yourself that and it will become your reality. You will psych yourself out every time you try something challenging or uncomfortable. We can do whatever we set our minds to.
6.) Praise yourself along the way—small steps matter. Build upon them. Remember all of the small non-scale victories. One month ago, you may have never tracked a single morsel of food. Now 90% of the time, food is tracked and documented. small wins add up!
7.) Try not to focus on the here and NOW. Focus on where you want to be in one month. Each time you quit because something is hard or uncomfortable, you are that much further behind from where you want to go. Envision yourself one month from now. What would the future you tell you now?
