Why It's So Hard to Change

Have you ever bought something with the intention of using it, but then it collects dust?  You want to use the thing you bought, that's why you got it in the first place, but  can't you get yourself to use it.  It can be so hard to change, most people think they don't have enough willpower. But that simply isn't true, willpower alone isn't enough to change most deep seated habits.  Let's explore both the neuroscience and energetic perspective on why change is so hard and what we can do to enact change in our lives.  

Neuroscience and Change

It's estimated that 95% of our brain activity - including decisions, actions, emotions, and behavior - are generated by the subconscious mind.  That's why it's so hard to change, you are trying to use 5% of your brain against the other 95% that is running on autopilot.
Source: Szegedy-Maszak, M. (2005). "Mysteries of the Mind: Your unconscious is making your everyday decisions." U.S. News & World Report

When a habit is deeply ingrained the neural pathway is coated in myeline, a fatty substance that increases speed.  Myelinated neurons can transmit electrical impulses up to 100 times faster than unmyelinated ones.  This means that doing something new will be inherently harder because that neural pathway isn't as efficient as one that you have used many many times.  Source: Fields, R. D. (2008). "White matter matters." Scientific American

The Basal Ganglia is the part of the brain responsible for habit formation and "chunking" behaviors. Once a behavior is moved here, the brain stops actively "thinking" about it.  Research shows that during habit execution, activity in the prefrontal cortex (the decision-maker) drops significantly, while the basal ganglia remains highly active.  Your brain effectively goes on autopilot. To change, you have to manually override a system that has been designed to bypass your conscious thought entirely. It’s like trying to change the destination of a train that has already left the station.  Source: Graybiel, A. M. (2008). "Habits, Rituals, and the Evaluative Brain." Annual Review of Neuroscience.

Energy and Change

Just as we have a physical body, we have an energetic body.  Science is beginning to catch-up to what many ancient traditions knew (see books from Dr. Joe Dispenza, Dr. Shamini Jain, Dr. John Beaulieu, Eileen McKusic).  Our energy body consists of energy pumps, these are called chakras in the yogic tradition, they are also called portals, vortexes, wheels, or energy centers.  Energy then moves through channels, like cars on a highway; nadis in the yogic tradition, meridians in the Chinese tradition, or sens in the Thai tradition.

Our energy body is the blueprint for our physical body.  We shower daily to clean our physical body.  Most people don't actively clean their energy body, this creates energetic residue and stagnation over time, often referred to as blocks.  These energy blocks make it hard to feel our best or make changes mentally, emotionally, and physically.  If you shift your energy by clearing out energy blocks and infusing your energy body with fresh energy then you will feel revitalized, more calm, more present.  Imagine you have to go up a snowy mountain, without energy healing every step is difficult and challenging.  With energy healing the path has been cleared, you are still making your way up the mountain, but it's easier because some of the resistance in your path has been cleared.  

Many people wonder why they can't make changes in their life, but they haven't changed their energy.  They are encountering energetic resistance every step of the way, which means if they start something and do it once or twice, they aren't likely to stick with you.  

The Connection

Energy healing and neuroscience work in parallel to explain why change can be hard.  This is not an either / or scenario, rather they are two sides of the same coin.  You can use your understanding of both energy healing and neuroscience to set yourself up for success when making changes in your life.

How to Make Change Happen in Your Life

At Soul Tara HQ we are big proponents of energy healing, our founders have both trained in multiple energy healing modalities.  One-on-one energy healing is the most potent and the most rapid way to make change in your life.  But don't let budget be an excuse, they are plenty of affordable energy healing options from community circles to free resources on YouTube.

If you aren't ready to explore energy healing you can still shift your energy using certain everyday activities with intention.

Here are 5 ways you can shift your energy yourself:

• deep breathing
• walk in nature
• exercise
• meditation
• journaling  

If you chose to shift your energy yourself commit to 5 minutes are day for a few weeks until it becomes habit, from there slowly expand your practice.  If you try to do too much at once you are likely to give up after a few days, instead chose something that you can't say no to and do it consistently until it becomes a habit.