Want to create change? Then get comfortable being uncomfortable!

95% of who we are, are subconscious thoughts, behaviours and emotions!'

It’s a funny thing, change. People are always wanting to change things about their life. Whether it’s taking up a new hobby, learning  something new, creating an exercise regime, a different nutrition plan, new career path, the list goes on, and it’s not easy. 

Our brain is wired in a way that makes us follow the easy path, the path of least resistance, and even if it’s not the one we consciously want to follow, or the one that we feel would be best for us, it’s the one we find ourselves following nonetheless. It’s the path we have learnt and we repeat day in, day out, emotionally, physically and socially. 

Habits are hard to change we know this, we work on auto-pilot, from the moment we get up and start our daily routine. To create a new habit we are advised to attach it to an old one like doing 10 squats when you clean your teeth, or putting a reminder next to the kettle. 

It's a huge subject and really does effect every aspect of our life. 

When we arrive at the door of starting a somatic practice we are looking to create change. To improve our mobility, help with muscular tension and pain, de-stress. Yet through the learning of new movements and awareness of ourselves to help create that change we find ourselves in a state on discomfort, somewhere different and unknown, a feeling we aren’t used to, and our natural reaction? To automatically put ourselves back in the path of comfort and least resistance!

We cannot create change by doing the same things in the same way we always have. We cannot create change by not paying attention. We cannot create change without time, patience, consistency and discomfort. Awareness is key, we cannot change what we aren’t aware of, so we need to start by noticing ourselves. 

I often tell clients to think about your brain like a toddler, it needs support and reassurance. It needs training, you are literally re-wiring your brain, with new information, new options and new possibilities, which I personally think is super cool! 

So when you slip back into your habits just notice, regroup and keep going, no matter what they are.  If you were learning to play a musical instrument you wouldn't be a concert level performer straight away. Some days would be easy, some would be harder, but if you gave up on the days that you hit the wrong note, you certainly wouldn’t get better at it! 

So when things feel uncomfortable and different, take time to sit with that, get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable,  knowing that in the discomfort you are changing!