Phase Transitions: Embrace your phases after a change

The corona crisis is a great example of change. When the change was just there, I went through all kinds of phase transitions. First, I wanted to pop with my business. I thought the opportunities were there for me, but then suddenly my ad account was blocked. I couldn't even record live videos

That made me feel a bit demotivated. For a while, I just didn’t feel like being inspiring anymore. So I started reading some books, but after about two months, my motivation came back. The sun started shining again, so I started sowing seeds once more. That feels good, and it’s also really cool.

We're going to get back to producing and all making stuff.

These kinds of phases or seasons are beautiful to embrace.

Maybe you don’t feel like doing anything right now either—except for what you absolutely have to—but accept it. Accept this feeling. And don’t force yourself to do anything.

Just read a nice book or magazine.

Also, don’t go on social media to compare yourself to others.

Sit in the garden or in front of the window and just enjoy. After all, spring will come on its own.

And nothing stays, including this.

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Phase transitions in change

Many people think that change and your response to change is a linear process. One naturally follows the other to put it succinctly. This just doesn't have to be the case.

In particular, post-traumatic growth—the mental growth you experience after a drastic event—doesn’t have to be linear[1]. So, you don’t always go through fixed stages of transition when facing change. This is also one of the reasons why it’s best to embrace your individual stages and figure out for yourself how to cope with your mood and change.

Features that affect your response

This is a unique crisis, but it is certainly not the only crisis we have ever experienced. I am an entrepreneur, and all entrepreneurs have had to think about how to steer their business through this time.

There are several ways to do this, and much depends on your focus.

In 1977, research was conducted on how small business owners cope with drastic change. The business owners were divided into two types of people: those referred to as “internals” and those referred to as “externals.”

Internals are managers whose focus is on factors in their company or themselves to cope with change.

Externals are business owners/managers whose focus is on factors outside their business or outside themselves to cope with change.

These were followed for 2.5 years. After the observations, the researchers concluded that entrepreneurs with an internal focus suffered less stress, had more task-oriented strategies to deal with the changes and were less concerned with emotion strategies to deal with the change than "externals."[2]

The funny thing is that the results of this survey are quite recognizable. My motivation was gone, my energy to do something so to speak, but I dealt with it by then just reading books.

It is a small "task" that I gave myself to deal with the change that corona brought in the beginning.

So yes, you can start meditating to reduce anxiety and the like, but sometimes simply making a commitment to yourself to complete at least one small, low-effort task is also a good way to cope with a drastic change.

What do you do when the rules suddenly change

In addition, research has been conducted on what people do when the rules of “the game” suddenly change. In fact, this is exactly what happened during the COVID-19 crisis: all kinds of social rules suddenly changed, requiring people to adapt.

In a study where people underwent a three-hour test where halfway through, the rules suddenly changed, interesting results also emerged.

Namely, that the better you can think, the better your post-change decisions will be.

If you are open to new experiences you will also make better decisions after the change.

If you don't care so much about doing certain work well, your decisions after the change will be better, too. The latter depended particularly on the traits to what extent you like to have order, do your duty and think about something carefully first[3].

So the funny thing, really, is that if you are not averse to cheating a bit with Monopoly, you are likely to make better decisions after changing the rules than if you are punctual with following the rules.

Accepting your phases and learning to cope with change

Depending on your beliefs about how the world works and how you function—or think you should function—in it, it may be easier or more difficult to accept your reaction to change and to cope effectively with it.

For example, you may be incredibly irritated with yourself if you find that for a while you become lethargic with new rules or renewal of awkward rules.

Then it's helpful to ask yourself why do you find it difficult when you are momentarily lacking in energy?

Why do you feel like you always have to go bananas?

Sometimes this isn’t immediately clear. In that case, a hypnotherapist can help you figure out where that belief comes from. That insight alone can weaken the belief, allowing you to actually relax for a moment and stop pushing yourself to do something just for the sake of it.

There are several ways to figure out such a belief that prevents you from taking a moment to relax when that is what your body is signaling. For example, you can have a conversation in which you ask through. Like the why question can be repeated and the hypnotherapist can pick up on words that have an unconscious meaning for you because of the way you speak.

In addition , regression can also be used . With regression, you go back to the very first moment when a belief that isn’t helping you now first arose. You then revisit that moment with your current knowledge, so that you relive it. Sometimes you put yourself in the shoes of other people who were there at that time, and sometimes you can change the situation yourself in your mind. Anything is possible with your imagination.

Subsequently, you will find that beliefs have changed, making it easier to accept your phase transitions.

Then hypnosis can also help you change and cope.

For example, if you think it's important to keep order or follow rules and those rules suddenly change, sometimes it's very difficult. Everything suddenly seems untidy and the new rules are not the old rules that you have always managed with.

Perhaps this makes you see everything that is wrong with the situation and overlook the things that are going well.

In this case, hypnosis can help you shift your focus from what is not right to what is. Or shift your focus from all the external things you cannot control to internal things you can control.

A variety of techniques are also available for this purpose.

Would you like to learn more about these techniques? Then join us for a free online masterclass on hypnosis.

Would you like to get started right away with these techniques to help yourself or others? Then sign up now for one of our training programs.

Sources:

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027273580700027X

[2] https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1978-09912-001

[3] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00214.x