Creating the Conditions for Change

When did you last feel the desire for change?

Perhaps you have the experience of being united in a purposeful mission that matters, or you are looking for that right now. Maybe you experience a resonant leader in your life that inspires you with hope, caring and compassion.

In fact, being part of a shared vision or dream, is one of the major factors in stimulating the positive emotional state in our brains. Especially when this vision is larger or greater than - yes - ourselves!

Being alive to this state is the key. Neuroscience tells us that our desire for something else must be stronger than the neural pathways we’ve already established that keep us pinned to old patterns, tendencies and beliefs. We must frequently and habitually activate our positive emotional state.

For this we need a fertile soil within us. We need to learn to cultivate this state that equips us to feel into our longing or desire.

We can call this state openness, or as a felt sense, aliveness.

There’ve been times when I have felt no desire for life. Do you know this? Depressive states (or whatever we’re dealing with here) suck desire from our hearts and souls. For many reasons my experience with depression now opens me to a love for life that would not have been possible without these experiences. And, if you’ve been deep and painfully down there, you’ll know that feeling low or lethargic is one thing, yet experiencing depression, your soul squeezed of its purpose, is a completely different ball-game. There’s no aliveness. It’s a daily crucifixion, never ending, underground.

So when you feel that wave of desire for life, even in the smallest of whispers…

Don’t let it pass.

Don’t wait for the next moment.

It’s your soul speaking.

Follow the call, commit with all your courage, and join in the rhythm of change.

Neuroscience tells us that activating the PEA (positive emotional attractor) frequently, helps to evoke the positive state. As well as feeling a shared sense of purpose, this PEA state is also activated when we do stuff that is new, playful and challenging.

My good friend Rob took up table-tennis a few years back and organised a group. I gave him a couple of games. I'm in my comfort zone having played with classmates during school-lunch hours using maths books as the net, yet Rob was new to it.

“Why are you doing this Rob?”

And as he venomously smacked the ball back across the table “Because it stimulates the neural pathways in my brain!”

And we laughed.

Which we do a lot.