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Showing posts from August, 2008

Why is change so hard?

Why do we do the same routines for decades, all the while knowing they are not right for us? When we make a change, we bring up ancient, primal pain – the pain of life or death. The fear of losing our life. The pain of losing the little we have already gathered together in our worlds. This is like trying to take a bone from a dog – good luck. It makes sense. Think of a cave person. Would they shake up their routine just to see what happened? Probably not. Leaving the cave at a different time might mean getting eaten by a big animal -- better to stick with what you know! So when we are making changes, the same gut-level fears can arise. It’s enough to make you curl up in the fetal position and sob – which is why, for most of us, we avoid making big life changes. We avoid thinking about things too deeply and instead go along with the crowd and hope that in the end, it will somehow all make sense. But this is not the way that we become happy. To be happy requires asking questions –