Change Hurts
Wednesday, 29. November 2006, 12:50:55
Some people resist change, even when their life depends on it.
We all know that unhappy experience can be painful. But any change in life’s routine seems to increase the chance of illness according to research performed by Dr. Thomas Holms and Dr. Minoru Masuda (pdf-fil). Marriage was given an arbitrary value of 50 on a scale of life change units (LCU). Several hundred people ranked life changes according to importance. Death of spouse 100 LCU is the worst that can happen to a person. Between 50 and 100 there are only five other life changing events: divorce, marital separation, jail term, death of close family member, and last personal injury or illness, ranging from less than 75 down towards 50. The 37 last life changing events range from 47 down to 19 LUC.
Add the values for life events that took place the last 18 months. If you score less than 200, your risk of getting ill the next 8 months is less than 10 %. This rises to 25 % for a score over 200, and to almost 50 % for scores over 300. What surprised me was that change, even to the better, gave additional LCUs. So, should you not improve yourself? Yes, you should. But you don’t have to make all changes in one go.
Scientists have known that for years that change induces a physiological reaction in the brain that results in stress, discomfort and pain. By focusing attention on certain insights, humans, and companies can combat this resistance to change. When a person’s expectations are challenged, the brain fires a distress signal. But if the person comes up with a way to cope with a new demand, he can get the “Aha!” feeling. A moment of insight creates enough positive energy in the brain to counter the negative feelings.
Sometimes people resist change, even when their life depends on it! Neuroscience has found that the brain relegates routine tasks to a part of the brain that requires little energy (driving a car). In this way the more conscious part of the brain can process new things. The brain detects differences between expectations and actuality. When an “error” is detected, it triggers fear in our brain. We become emotional, our animal instincts take over.
Another interesting finding is that by focusing attention on something, a person will develop new neural connections which if reinforced enough will become part of his subconscious. If a person starts focusing on a "problem", he will start developing new connections for why the problem occurs. This will not change a person's behavior because it focuses on the problems that are causing the behavior instead of the solutions. People who specialize in certain fields will develop brain connections to handle their job with the least amount of energy possible. That means that a finance person and an engineer have their brains wired differently. They will never look at the world the same way!
Even if a person knows that Opera is the best web-browser, it can be difficult for that person to change browser. The most common excuse is “I don’t have time”. Convince that person that he will save time in the long run, still no down loading and installation of Opera!?
We all know that unhappy experience can be painful. But any change in life’s routine seems to increase the chance of illness according to research performed by Dr. Thomas Holms and Dr. Minoru Masuda (pdf-fil). Marriage was given an arbitrary value of 50 on a scale of life change units (LCU). Several hundred people ranked life changes according to importance. Death of spouse 100 LCU is the worst that can happen to a person. Between 50 and 100 there are only five other life changing events: divorce, marital separation, jail term, death of close family member, and last personal injury or illness, ranging from less than 75 down towards 50. The 37 last life changing events range from 47 down to 19 LUC. Add the values for life events that took place the last 18 months. If you score less than 200, your risk of getting ill the next 8 months is less than 10 %. This rises to 25 % for a score over 200, and to almost 50 % for scores over 300. What surprised me was that change, even to the better, gave additional LCUs. So, should you not improve yourself? Yes, you should. But you don’t have to make all changes in one go.
Scientists have known that for years that change induces a physiological reaction in the brain that results in stress, discomfort and pain. By focusing attention on certain insights, humans, and companies can combat this resistance to change. When a person’s expectations are challenged, the brain fires a distress signal. But if the person comes up with a way to cope with a new demand, he can get the “Aha!” feeling. A moment of insight creates enough positive energy in the brain to counter the negative feelings.
Sometimes people resist change, even when their life depends on it! Neuroscience has found that the brain relegates routine tasks to a part of the brain that requires little energy (driving a car). In this way the more conscious part of the brain can process new things. The brain detects differences between expectations and actuality. When an “error” is detected, it triggers fear in our brain. We become emotional, our animal instincts take over.
Another interesting finding is that by focusing attention on something, a person will develop new neural connections which if reinforced enough will become part of his subconscious. If a person starts focusing on a "problem", he will start developing new connections for why the problem occurs. This will not change a person's behavior because it focuses on the problems that are causing the behavior instead of the solutions. People who specialize in certain fields will develop brain connections to handle their job with the least amount of energy possible. That means that a finance person and an engineer have their brains wired differently. They will never look at the world the same way!
Even if a person knows that Opera is the best web-browser, it can be difficult for that person to change browser. The most common excuse is “I don’t have time”. Convince that person that he will save time in the long run, still no down loading and installation of Opera!?
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All Inorbitarians happily cheer welcoming yet another very good and informative post.
It's very interesting that any change will increase the possibility of illness. I'd rather expect that routine and boredom would be far more dangerous on that account.
Also a very interesting point is that one should focus on solutions rather than problems themselves (I should note it somewhere besides my bed to see it every morning when I wake up).
Yet I'm not impressed of the resisting to change fact. Up to a point it is quite rational. I mean that if one has found a balance - or an easy way to get by - then s/he would normally like to keep things that way. This is not always bad ,(for example it's good to stay in a nice job for more than a month), but there are times when it stands in the way of improving our lives and/or solving crucial problems. That's when reasoning should step in and push us change to a better browser or stop eating whales. Obviously there are many people that have this kind of internal power (otherwise nothing would ever change) but it would be nice if there were more of them.
Anyway, great post that goes into my VIP section.
HYS
By zerog, # 2. December 2006, 22:39:58
It looks like we both have learned something, and that we agree on all points. We can not always change, and yes many everyday tasks must become routine work, or else we will be inefficient workers. But we should look at our routines more often than every five or ten years when we change jobs. Let us say every half year we discuss our habits with ourselves, a good friend or our spouse, and keep good habits and get rid of a few bad ones. It is also important to not stop a chain of thought too early. A typical thought stopper could be “every one else do” or “it is typical Norwegian (Greek)”.
We don’t always have to agree on all points.
Any honest comment makes one want to post more often.
By leirom, # 3. December 2006, 01:43:24
I like the "every 6 months stop and check" scheme. I'll try it.
By zerog, # 3. December 2006, 22:44:42