Change How You React to Stress: Change is Vital, Stress Is Not

I recently heard Brad Yates on the radio interviewing Dr Richard A. DiCenso about his 6-week Change Programme which is part of his Science of Successful Change Program.  The programme outlines exactly where I want to get to.  Hence my reason for sharing him with you.

According to Dr "D", his 6-week programme that will enable us to eliminate, change or improve any of our habits that we let screw us up when we're under stress.  

From the discussion, I learned that we constantly fall back into our messes because of a self-regulating thermostat that's supposedly meant to keep us safe.  We're all subjected to this "brain-washing" by well-meaning parents from the day we are born so that we adopt their lifestyle, habits and culture.

The biggest culprit in the mix is our amygdala, an almond shaped thing-a-ma-jig in our brain which produces stress hormones when something in our life changes. We humans interpret this stress as a danger sign and that's why we become anxious, depressed, worried, afraid, etc. All the amygdala is doing is giving us a heads up that our situation has changed.

DiCenso's advice about any new situation is "...if it's not something you want, deal with it immediately before it consumes you." And we all know how that works, don't we, especially when we're afraid about a future we can't possibly know!

His way of dealing with the amygdala's chemical reaction to a new situation is:

• ASK (for what you want)
• BELIEVE (you already have it-visualization)
• RECEIVE it
• RELEASE RESISTANCE to change. The stress hormones kick in here. It's therefore essential to work through the stress-created emotions and he uses the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

EFT is a way of creating emotional space by using a finger-tapping method on specific meridians on your face and chest. It's just like acupuncture but without the needles.

DiCenso says that if we don't have a way to manage our emotional reaction, we will fall right back into our old ways. And it's very easy to do that because the pattern is already there; built on what we learned growing up. I know that and so do you.

And guess what determines someone's level of commitment to change - fear.  He has ten solid ways of processing information and handling stress that would put us in a much easier frame of mind.

1. Decide what you want and ignore what you don't want.
2. Gather the information you need to work on your intended outcome.
3. Analyse the information and decide what's relevant to you.
4. Now comes the gestation period - it's time to process the information; mull it over and see what comes out in the mix.
5. A period of insight and the aha! moments will follow.
6. After that comes inspiration. "Knowing" that you're on the right track. The light of intuition turns on.
7. Now, act on your intuition i.e. take inspired action: you don't know how you know but you just know it's the right move!
8. Don't act and nothing will change.
9. It's time now to integrate the new paradigm into the old way of thinking and reacting.

10. You start to "live" this new experience as you wanted and envisioned in the first place. It is so much sweeter!

We must get to know ourselves, understand how we think and react in order to create the best life for ourselves that we can. The sky's the limit! And the beauty of Dr D's programme is that it is non-invasive.

Be the change you want to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi

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