Messages in the Process of Making Change

Is there a message for all of us to consider as we traditionally look at making a change? It’s not just any change. It’s changing that moves you from where you are in the present into an expanded view of your life, or in ways to improve your wellness and well-being whether that be health, relationship, or business choices.

 

 

  In the process of making any change, there is the need to first learn from where you are standing now.  I remember listening to Jean Houston speaking several years ago about making change at the quantum level. She spoke of the mechanics of a quantum leap where an electron jumps into a new expression of something greater than itself on its own.  However, before this happens, the molecule creates homeostasis. This applies to your life in the same way in the beginning stages of making change as a place of getting in touch with your feelings, thoughts, and insights that have brought you to the need to make a change in the present as an essential part of considering a positive change.

  Change takes you out of routine, habit, and the familiar. At this crossroad, you have a Point of Choice. You can either stay in your current situation, relationship or pattern or choose to experience something completely new. Leaping into new territory or redefining your life through the filter of needs, resources and benefits is essential for long-lasting benefits. This means making time and space to define where you are headed.

 

 

Based on the book,  Changing for Good by James Prochaska, Ph.D., there are aspects of the process that can be described as The Five Cycles of Change.  The feeling process that accompanies these cycles is similar to what Elizabeth Kubler-Ross researched in her description of the Grief Process including denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Each aspect is unique to each person in sequence, duration and intensity.

1. Pre-contemplation: This is the place where you are likely still in denial, and not yet aware that you want or need to change.

 

2. Contemplation: At this point, you may be starting to experience uneasiness about your current situation. You may experience a sense of feeling unsettled, angry, upset, and resentful that you are where you are in this situation. You may be bargaining in this stage.

 

3. Preparation: As you work through your feelings, you reach a place of acceptance. This is the place where you look at the pros and cons. This is the Point of Choice.

 

4. Action: You focus, make a decision, and start taking some form of action.

 

5. Maintenance: You check your action and continue to take steps to actively choose what is life-energizing. You feel confident and thankful for your work, and see the value in your positive change.

 

6. Recycling: You check and move into an earlier stage to understand, question, or update your thinking and planning.