{"id":379607,"date":"2013-02-02T18:09:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T18:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2013\/02\/02\/opening-to-change\/"},"modified":"2013-02-02T18:09:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-02T18:09:00","slug":"opening-to-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2013\/02\/02\/opening-to-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening to Change"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I must admit I wasn\u2019t so keen on the new kitchen gadget when my mother insisted on buying me a new one.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cI don\u2019t need a new can opener,\u201d I replied to her, \u201cthe one I have is just fine. Besides they don\u2019t make things like they used to<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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But the truth is, the old one had started to slip and I found myself running it back and forth over the uncut portions of the can.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Why we resist change<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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I do recognize that there were two dynamics in play, the first being that I was used to the quirks of this utensil that has served me so well since the day I claimed it from the discard pile. I was helping a friend clean out her mother\u2019s house after she\u2019d moved her elder into an adult residency.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I\u2019d recently purchased a new can opener, which had literally fallen apart in my hand when I squeezed the handles together, not too many months after I\u2019d brought it home.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cCan I have this?\u201d I\u2019d asked my friend. \u201cThey don\u2019t make things like they used to. This one looks good and sturdy.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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And sturdy it has been for years now.<\/span><\/div>\n
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So when my mom asked me what I wanted her to do with the old one, I instructed her to leave it in the drawer. Surely I will need its services when this new one explodes. Or fails.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\ufeff<\/div>\n
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The second dynamic is that I don\u2019t like to give up on anything until I know that it no longer has any use, or until I believe I have exhausted every possible option.<\/span><\/div>\n
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If I don\u2019t wear an article of clothing until it is stretched out or threadbare, I take it to a local church\u2019s clothing hut.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I donated my children\u2019s quickly-outgrown items to the school nurse, who was always in need of spares for students who came upon some mishap during the school day.<\/span><\/div>\n
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And I recycle everything. Well, almost<\/i> everything.<\/span><\/div>\n
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That old opener still had life in it and, by God, I wasn\u2019t throwin\u2019 it out until it totally went kaput.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Aren\u2019t there starving people somewhere?<\/span><\/div>\n
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Silly as this little kitchen contraption story is, it is indicative of how we tend to look at change.<\/span><\/div>\n
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How many times have you heard someone say, or said yourself, \u201cChange is hard?\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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Sherrie Bourg Carter Psy.D, in her piece, Change is Hard, Here\u2019s Why You Should Keep Trying<\/span><\/a>,<\/i> says, \u201cChange is hard. But people tackle hard projects all the time.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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But here\u2019s an even better truth: People succeed<\/i> in meeting the challenges of difficult tasks all the time.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The elements that comprise change<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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C<\/span><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:f><\/v:formulas><\/v:stroke><\/span><\/v:shapetype>arter\u2019s piece sites this Five Stages of Change Model as published in a Harvard Women\u2019s Health Watch article (<\/span>links to which aren\u2019t currently functional<\/span><\/a>). <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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The Precontemplation phase is a period where one doesn\u2019t recognize that change is either needed or desired.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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I find the Contemplation phase most interesting, the timeframe in which a person acknowledges that changes are wanted or required, but hasn\u2019t reached the point of committing to modify her lifestyle.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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I spent plenty of time in this stage before I finally <\/span>kicked my smoking addiction<\/span><\/a> to the curb.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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In the Action phase one is actually making adjustments to her behavior in an effort to achieve an expected or anticipated result.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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This spiral of this model accounts for periods of relapse.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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As complex as this process turns out to be, there is one <\/span>simple fact about change: When we make an alteration in our lives, bring something new into it, something old must go.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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It\u2019s pointless to hold onto fascinations that no longer work for us, to leave them hanging out in the drawers of our lives.<\/span><\/div>\n
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(Excuse me while I run to the kitchen to throw that brown can opener into the trash bin.)<\/span><\/div>\n
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But we become so content with our usual ways that they fit us like our comfiest, worn pair of shoes.<\/span><\/div>\n
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And we resist letting go.<\/span><\/div>\n
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When I was standing in the shower, morning after morning, nearly hacking up a lung from coughing fits, quitting smoking was the most logical approach, and yet it took me years to finally engage in committed action toward cessation.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Putting a new spin on change<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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When I did decide to quit, I had to replace my addictive behavior and<\/i>the cigarettes with something else.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I chose the tip of using water as my new go-to fix. Not only would the fluid help flush the nicotine from my system, I needed to incorporate more into my diet.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I reprogrammed my brain to say water<\/i> whenever the nicotine trigger was engaged.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I love cold water. The colder the better.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Instead of focusing on what I was missing, I paid attention to the thirst quenching and refreshing nature of the icy beverage.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I replaced the cigarette itself with Big Red gum. The fiery flavor seemed to satisfy my taste buds and the chewing action took the place of the puffing. I embraced the tingling sensation with each chomp.<\/span><\/div>\n
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If we can look at change as something fresh and exciting as opposed to something dreadful and daunting, it\u2019s not only easier to adapt our ways, it becomes enjoyable.<\/span> <\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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What about you? Do you tend to be open to change? Do <\/span>you often face change with ambivalence or do you attack it with fervor? If you have made a big change in your life, share your tips and tricks here.<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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Soon<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
\ufeff<\/span><\/div>\n
\ufeff<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I must admit I wasn\u2019t so keen on the new kitchen gadget when my mother insisted on buying me a new one. \u201cI don\u2019t need a new can opener,\u201d I replied to her, \u201cthe one I have is just fine. Besides they don\u2019t make things like they used to.\u201d But the truth is, the old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[745,746,747,748,19,749,750,726,751,69,752,167],"class_list":["post-379607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-big-red-gum","tag-can-opener","tag-change","tag-embracing-change","tag-inspiration","tag-kitchen-gadgetry","tag-opening-to-change","tag-quitting-smoking","tag-smoking-cessation","tag-the-five-facets","tag-why-we-resist-change","tag-womens-issues"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Can-Opener-Text.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}