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“Make small and pleasant changes in your life and you will achieve what you set out to do”
Psychology
One day it may be a lack of appetite, another day insomnia and another day it may manifest itself in persistent fatigue from early in the morning. The body speaks and provides signals that reveal that something is wrong, but sometimes we do not know how to listen to it and we prefer to undergo all kinds of medical tests rather than trying to observe, analyze and understand our emotions. “What these signs sometimes indicate is that we need to pay more attention to ourselves and change the way we interpret things that happen to us. Knowledge is power, but self-knowledge it can be a super power “, explains Dr. Marisa Navarro, psychotherapist and author of” The cogwheels. ”
The author is convinced that the mind and the body are so connected, down to the smallest details, that the different facets of life are like “cog wheels” that rotate in synchronization with each other, forming the unit that turns the wheels. hands of that precision machinery that is each person. The synchrony It is, therefore, a key for everything to work well, that is why when a person tries to «change the direction or the speed of rotation of one of those wheels without intervening on the others, great resistances or brakes are produced that make the motor lose synchrony. the whole set, ”explains Navarro.
That is why the psychotherapist insists that those “great changes” in life or those great goals that we sometimes pursue or seek are only possible if we are making “little changes” that they work out for us «Easy, attractive and pleasant» because if they meet those three characteristics we can first turn them into something that we do almost effortlessly and then into habits. To better understand this technique, Dr. Navarro gives an example. «If you think about losing weight, that objective in the abstract is too big, long and expensive, but if what I do is simply start by introducing a fruit and whole wheat bread for breakfast instead of eating three muffins and I also do it in such a way that I enjoy that moment, with a delicious bread, in addition to healthy, cut into slices, a selection of my favorite fruits, a beautiful cup for coffee and a presentation that invites you to eat with your eyes I will be turning that small change into an enjoyment and not in a sacrifice.
From “little change” to habit
Turning what we do into something simple, beautiful and pleasant helps us to integrate it into our day-to-day without being a heavy burden, but if we also reinforce that practice with additional information or with readings that help us understand the benefits it can bring us this change (properties of fruits, differences between eating refined flour bread or whole wheat flour, benefits of avoiding the consumption of pastries …, following the previous example) it will be possible to walk towards a “shift in thinking” May it help turn that “little change” into a habit or something that remains in our lives. “Making it visible, attractive, easy and pleasant is what allows you to establish and settle a change in your life,” says Dr. Navarro.
For the expert the thought is what generates the feeling and that is precisely where the action. «It is clear that one can feel sad if he has not previously had a sad thought. The thoughts we have determine our actions. Analyze what you think and you will know how you will end up acting, “he warns.
Another useful technique for making small but important changes is to “locate the click of habit.” An example might be dressing in sportswear or putting on running shoes if we want to exercise or if we want to go for a walk or run for a few miles. “Once you have prepared for it, it is less expensive to do it, but this is an example, because each one has to know what works for him and what his own habit click is,” he says.
It can also be effective to incorporate something that is very difficult to do or that tends to make us more lazy, such as lifting weights, into a dynamic that we do daily and that we enjoy, such as listening to music or your favorite podcast, or walking for half an hour or even dancing. .
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A shared publication of Dra. Marisa Navarro (@_marisanavarro)
The best thing about making these small changes is that, as revealed in “the cogwheels” some cause others to be generated. Thus, practicing exercise will lead me to want to eat better or to want to stop smoking and eat better. Perhaps it invites me to want to take better care of my image or to be more selective with the people around me… «The movement of each and every one of those little ones wheels are what help generate the big changes ”, says Dr. Navarro.
Finally the psychotherapist invites to establish small Routines at home that we find pleasant (or even fun) and that help us to connect with ourselves or with the people we live with. “In my house, my husband and I have established that every day we have our ‘disco moment’, so at a certain time we put on music and start dancing. We laugh, we have a good time … », he confesses.
Reading, music, dance, yoga, cinema, meditation, decoration, sense of humor… There are a lot of possibilities. “Motivation, enthusiasm and passion come from within, they depend on you, not on what happens outside,” he recalls.
Doctor of Medicine, master’s degree in Gerontology and Health from the University of Alicante and specialist in sleep disorders from the UCM, Marisa Navarro works as a psychotherapist, is a professor, lecturer and author of the books «Emotional medicine», «The tart effect» and “The cogwheels”, in addition to publishing articles in national and international scientific journals.