How To Challenge And Overcome Resistance To Change In Life

Life with chronic illness isn’t easy for anyone, especially a mum with anxiety. I lack control over my own life due to chronic migraine and my rare brain condition, IIH. This life has challenged my whole family but has motivated us to adapt. With hard work, emotional strength, patience and trusted support we’ve been able to change. 

Knowing I have power over my thoughts and actions made me see how my mind can get stuck going over past events when I’m feeling low or depressed. I’d tell myself ‘I’m a burden’ or ‘It’s all in my head’, only confiding in my husband, Joel. However, dealing with so much at once tested us. 

We needed to discuss our feelings with someone neutral so we’d have full support from each other and our loved ones moving forward. I knew effective change would take time and support so I swallowed my pride and asked for help. I’ve learnt to be present with my thoughts and that honest self-talk is vital to my ability to cope.

To challenge and overcome resistance to change I also needed to appreciate how my brain and body work together. By studying my patterns of behaviour in the past and present, I could plan for sustainable change. This has helped give me the mental strength to accept development and disarm any power this held over my self worth. 

The four key ways I’ve developed my attitude towards positive change are:

• Accepting you can only control how you think and act

• Listening to the stories you tell yourself 

• Knowing with whom to discuss how you feel 

• Changing your behaviour patterns over time

As this covers 4 ways you can take practical action and improve your mental health, I recommend downloading my free journal prompts to support you in looking at behavioural patterns and developing self worth so that any and all changes you make are effective.

Accepting You Can Only Control How You Think And Act

Big changes in our lives impact our thoughts, and subsequently our mental health, because of what we are exposed to. Our minds are wired to respond to stress with primal instincts, as if facing physical threats. This can lead to strong reactions to emotions, such as my anxiety when adjusting to new situations.

When I became chronically ill my world changed from an active life to a confined one  overnight. My world became my family, house and garden which was okay but as my health deteriorated further, my world became even smaller. At the time I wanted to run from it all. I talk in detail about my chronic illness journey in this blog.

I believed I was a burden to my family, especially to Joel, as I could no longer play the role I always had. I became depressed with little self worth, even wondering if my family would be better off without me. But I knew I had to fight to be the mother and wife my family needed, even if it was different. 

I learnt how the brain and body responds to stress and that mine was trying to protect me from threat, which helped me manage stress. This article explains ways to can manage and reduce stress. I learnt that to overcome resistance to change my negative thinking, I had to take control. Only I had the power to make the changes I needed to live the best life I could.

Listening To The Stories You Tell Yourself 

To do this I needed to unpack how my past experiences impacted my current thoughts. I exposed vulnerabilities in my relationship with chronic illnesses. Due to many absences from secondary school due to undiagnosed migraine, I’d been labelled a hypochondriac. Now I was struggling to believe my own pain was real.

I’d been diagnosed with atypical migraine after 20 years so I was stuck in a negative thought pattern whilst trying to get my IIH diagnosis. I’d buried embarrassment and regret more deeply with each misdiagnosis, convinced nobody believed me. I needed help to navigate my journey so found my life coach, Josie, to help me unpick it all. 

Being aware of this helps me reinforce my truth and grow stronger. My past has less control over my narrative and I have more power to overcome resistance to change. I may still take small steps forward but my self belief continues to grow. 

Knowing With Whom To Discuss How You Feel 

I’ve had to reshape my life from necessity which makes change a bigger challenge. My brain condition stole my ability to communicate well and many of my supposed close friends dropped out of my life. I felt guilty for letting others down and because my judgement was impaired, I didn’t know who to trust with how I felt. 

However, my true friends showed themselves when they rallied to help and comfort me when I had my first treatments. Their loyalty gave me strength to set boundaries to protect myself from those who didn’t support me as I navigated this new life.

But I was still grieving my old life and needed reassurance that it was okay to feel angry, sad and lost. The four of us built our communication skills in family counselling so we could discuss our feelings whilst respecting each other. We built strong support systems with others who we trusted over time, which was crucial for each of us. 

Having confidantes has helped us cope with every surgery I’ve had, each one giving me back more of my old self. We developed ways to discuss our feelings as a family and I grew to trust those who were there for me without doubts or conditions again. This helped me overcome resistance to change and be grateful for what I now have.

Changing Our Behaviour Patterns Over Time   

It’s normal to resist change, we usually run from it but accepting we’re scared helps us embrace the inevitability of change. Exploring why past experiences made us feel this way, can help grow our ability to adapt. Change is most likely during our career, so this Forbes article shares 12 ways to successfully manage change in business.

I managed change in my role as lead teacher but I had no idea how much change I was capable of until my situation left me no choice. To embrace my new life, I looked at my emotional reactions to positive and negative changes in my past. This enabled me to transform feelings of blame and guilt into pride and self respect. 

When trying to adapt established behaviours we need to set our intentions and know it will make a positive difference to our lives. Click here to read my blog about how I developed my ‘Growth Mindset’ for going through change. Our brains continue to develop throughout life, forming new connections through repetitive actions or habits.

As a worrier, my brain is wired to release dopamine to reinforce connections each time I worry. This feel-good chemical is released whether the action is good or bad, making it hard to stop worrying and difficult to overcome resistance to change.

However, when we recognise that changing our habits will bring a huge difference to our lives, we can use the same wiring. Creating new behaviour patterns also releases dopamine each time we repeat an action. Focusing on small steps forward leads to more success, so with willpower and time it becomes our default behaviour. 

Serotonin is released to communicate our desire to change. I use journaling to reflect on daily progress with new habits and to celebrate my small wins. Each win releases these feel-good hormones and helps us establish positive change. If you’re interested in journaling to support your own growth and mental health, try my free prompts.   

How To Overcome Resistance To Change By Being Strong

Everything in my life changed with my IIH and this has been difficult to accept because I have such little control over the situation. I’ve learnt to focus on changes I can control and now focus on making positive transformations despite my illnesses.

Despite getting through the darkest days, self-talk held me back, making it harder to overcome resistance to change. Brené Brown’s perspective on the stories we tell ourselves was a revelation for me and was critical in helping me adapt successfully. 

Now I’m usually able to reject negative thoughts that could slow my progress as I understand the link between the brain and changing behaviour patterns. My recognition of the science behind this has helped me be better prepared for future developments. However, big life changes still have potential to upset my emotions. 

The difference in my life nowadays has helped me learn when, who and how to talk about my feelings. Having boundaries has meant removing people from my life who hold me back and making room for those who genuinely encourage and support me. 

I believe I’ll keep moving forward by accepting what I can control, promoting positive self-talk, having authentic support and recognising that change won’t happen quickly. These steps have given me the strength to persevere and push myself to overcome my resistance to change; even on the hardest days.

Stay safe,

Laura 💜

P.S. If you just want the main points…

When my world changed overnight, I had to embrace a life with chronic illnesses. So I set boundaries with myself and others so I had support to focus on what I could control. I learnt that my negative self-talk was making it harder for me to change. So I looked at my brain and behaviour patterns to adapt my habits for making sustainable change for a better life.

If you find it hard to make changes to habits or struggle to cope with change, I can help you create small, achievable goals using my free well-being plan in my VIP resources area. This will help you develop your self-worth and stop doubting yourself.

Or if you want to wait for my upcoming ‘Thrive Not Survive Journal’, and be the first to know when it’s for sale, sign up to my Strong Mums mailing list here.

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