So, you get the new phone and if you are like me in this situation, you are delighted that the new phone will do all you need, as the old one didn’t anymore. And so, you go about setting it up, and there is the whole thing of not losing your old photos and numbers and messages… before you go to transferring your apps, or reloading them altogether. And let’s face it, we have so many apps now! I mean really, there is an app for most everything we do in life, bodily functions and movements, data you never knew you could take so much interest in! So, you have all this data transferred and set up when you realise all too much at this point already, that this new phone has different ways of doing things, buttons are in different places, there are different movements, sensitivities, shortcuts, securities, I mean it just doesn’t stop does it! Hence teenagers were invented, for this one purpose in life, to help you set up new phones!

And then new glasses, well that’s a whole different ball game… I wear varifocals and while they have definitely changed my life for the better, (I resisted getting them for about 2 years), they do take some getting used to! For those totally ignorant to the world of glasses; there are some who can’t see what’s near, and some who can’t see what’s far away, and then there’s people like me. I can’t see either! So instead of putting on glasses to read, and another to look into the distance, like driving, these do both. Very clever really. The trick is that the person wearing them has to look out of a particular part of the lens to have the focus for the distance they need, in other words, if I want to drive or look at something far away, I look through the top part of the lenses, and if I want to read, I lower my eyes and look through the bottom. Then there is the tricky bit in the middle; like if I want to see the person sitting at the other end of the table – not quite driving or reading… you get what I mean. So, this takes some getting used to. (You also cannot look sideways in them; you must turn your head to be relatively facing the thing you are looking at. Just thought I’d let you know that part as well!) Anyway, they are great really, it just takes a little time…

But why don’t we like change?

So, with a phone and glasses there are genuine obstacles but surely the positive benefits outweigh these, don’t they?

Have you ever noticed, when it’s someone else going through change, the positives are obvious and the challenges seem very little, yet when it’s yourself going through a change, it’s the other way around?

When we are forced to have change, we usually go into some kind of resistance mode. This is because the brain is essentially an organ built for our survival. It sees change largely as a threat and will always seek to go back to what it is familiar with. It likes what it has practiced, the neurons involved are stronger, it’s easier and uses less calories! I’m serious! It even comes down to calories when we are in a stressed state.

Next time you are asked to change something you have done in a particular way for years, just remember; the state of resistance you feel is just there on a subconscious level to keep you safe. If you know on a conscious, logical level that the changes are safe, good for you and will actually make life easier, then relax into the resistance. I would even go so far as suggesting the ’excuses’ that you have in your head against the change, are construed partly by your resistance, and therefore it is a healthy approach to not give them too much power.

Simply reassure yourself that in time this new way will be your practiced way and it will feel as safe as the old way now!