Change Your Mind and Live Life
Ever felt the pain of personal growth and wondered when it was
all going to get back to normal?
There's an interesting phenomenon I'd like to share called
'hysteresis'. This term quite basically means an object under
pressure such as an elastic band will return to its normal shape
once the pressure is released.
This can also apply to moving out of a comfort zone. When the
pressure is off individuals will often return to their original
state.
In order to move out of the comfort zone and create permanent
change, strong enough pressure must be applied to transcend old
habits. Once the pressure's released you'll then have
successfully moved to a new level.
There is however another way of creating inner change, that,
from experience, is not so painful, and that is through
perceiving life differently.
This change can go unnoticed until such time you meet your fear
face to face, which in my case was a fear of flying.
I often flew for either work or personal reasons although it
filled me with fear every time I stepped onto an aircraft. That
was until I finally had a panic attack flying at approximately
32,000 feet above the Australian outback.
Something had to give because I knew that sooner or later I'd
again have to fly.
One day with the help of a great coach friend of mine worked on
eliminating this fear of mine. We did this by drawing a line,
which we named the past time line, and looked at the different
events that occurred on it. Nothing exciting really, and we
spent the time with my friend asking me questions and me
answering them as best I could. To me it was a routine day
having fun with a wonderful friend and deciding to do something
about my fear.
I thought nothing more about our session until it came time for
me to once again fly. There I sat in the departure lounge
waiting for the familiar stirrings of anxiety and stress to
overwhelm me but something wonderful happened. Nothing! No
anxiety, no stress! I had finally become comfortable with the
uncomfortable!
Even as the aircraft became airborne, I remained calm and have
since enjoyed my flights tremendously.
I now have this new sense of freedom all because I decided to
look into why I had this fear in the first place. We're all so
magnificently unique that not everyone's outcome will be exactly
the same as mine - some may need to work harder at it, some
possibly less.
Whatever the case when individuals choose to remain within the
safety of their comfort zone nothing changes and life goes on as
it's always done - which is perfectly okay.
For others, it takes commitment on their part to change old
habits until the new behaviour becomes the 'norm', which it will
eventually.
Unfortunately there's no instant fix or cure (I would've found
it by now) - personal effort is required, and will, in all
likelihood, be uncomfortable initially.
The outcome of this will be living how you want to live, and
knowing you achieved this through your own efforts by simply
changing your mind.
Michaela Scherr
Transformational Coach