Most people have habits they’d like to get rid of or new habits they’d like to take up but find themselves making excuses to stop them. Change often happens due to a nasty shock that provides a trigger to actually make the change. It seems a shame that people have to experience something really traumatic or frightening to make their own wellbeing a priority so this blog post is about why people make changes and how we can make them without something bad needing to happen first.
Formula for Behaviour Change
A man called BJ Fogg, of the slightly unfortunate name, has a model for change called the Fogg Behaviour Model which theorises that change requires three things: motivation, ability to make the change and a trigger. He suggests there’s an optimal time to make a change and that is when motivation is high, the change is fairly easy to accomplish and there’s a trigger to remind people to make the change. For many people looking to change their lifestyle to reduce stress and enhance their wellbeing, normal triggers aren’t enough to overcome their low motivation or the difficulty of fitting new habits into their busy lifestyle.
What are Triggers?
If your motivation is high and it’s fairly easy to make a change, triggers could be simple things like seeing an offer for an activity you want to try or a recommendation from a friend for a new healthy diet. However, for very stressed people with low motivation and difficulty making changes, the triggers are far more serious, sadly. I had a traumatic experience when my lovely daughter became seriously ill. Dealing with my stressful lifestyle at the same time as looking after my daughter Dali and worrying about her constantly resulted in me being diagnosed with PTSD. This horrible experience was my trigger to put an end to the stressful lifestyle and work on enhancing my wellbeing.
Make the Change Sooner rather than Later
It’s pretty rubbish that it often takes something as awful as a beloved child becoming seriously ill to trigger someone into looking after themselves. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to make those changes without needing to go through such a traumatic experience? According to Mr Fogg, you can overcome a lack of motivation if making the change is easy or you can make a really difficult change if your motivation is high enough. For me I found that floating floating gave me the headspace needed to make changing my life much easier. Many people who float find it gives them greater clarity of mind and the feeling of relaxation and happiness it inspires improves motivation so there is less of a need for a really serious trigger to help people make a change.
At The Float Spa, we want to help people take the time to make changes to enhance their wellbeing and improve their health before something happens to frighten them into it. Floating is a great and dead-easy way to improve your overall wellbeing by allowing your mind and body to totally relax and rejuvenate. It’s a great baby step to make on your journey to changing your lifestyle to focus on looking after yourself. You can book a float by clicking here or call 01273 975656 to speak to one of our friendly staff about it.
