Two Options: Growth OR Safety

Why Change is Beneficial AND Stressful

I like my morning routine to be “just so”. The alarm goes off, the kettle goes on, cup of tea whilst looking out the window, snuggle with my dog, some gentle yoga, ablutions, a walk. Then the day can commence. But I am also a huge fan of change!! I can’t sit still in any situation for very long before I want to start to change things. I love to dive into new challenges and “mix things up” and I’m a perpetually enthusiastic student.

How do you feel about change? Are you happy in your comfort zone or do you thrive on adventure?

Sticking to the status quo means that our brains can stay within routines and known patterns. This feels comfortable as we can rely on habit and can avoid stress or effort. When we try new things, we carve out new neural pathways (thought patterns) and possibly new motor neural pathways (movement patterns) too. This takes effort and energy. And doing new things may trigger uncomfortable feelings arising from fear – “I don’t want to fail at this new thing”; shame – “I don’t want anyone to know that I am failing at this new thing”; lethargy – “I don’t have the energy to do this new thing”; anger – “I’m frustrated with how hard this new thing is” and so on.

Just like a muscle that can only grow when it is put under strain and will atrophy (weaken) when it’s not used, our ability to deal with new challenges will strengthen or deplete according to how often we exercise it. And exercise, as much as it utilises stress and strain and challenge, rewards us abundantly with confidence and happy-making hormones and life experience.

I’ll draw on some well-known adages and quotes to make my point for me (because my brain is tired of creating new things and would like to settle in the comfort of pre-written wisdom!!) 😊

 Change is inevitable; growth is optional

Use it or loose it

Your happiness is directly proportional to the amount of change that you can tolerate

 All things are difficult before they are easy

 Be the change you wish to see in the world

 If you can’t change it, change your attitude

 In any given moment we have two options:
to step forward into growth or to step back into safety