What is PASSWORD THERAPY?

Password therapy is when passwords are goals you're working towards, meaning you need to use the goal every time your computer locks or everytime it's necessary to change your password. 

Using your goals as passwords keeps them current and fresh in your consciousness. It's a constant reminder of what you want.

Passwords like Save20aweek, Walkeveryday, Nosugartoday, Drink8glassesofwater can do wonders towards reaching your goals.

What does stubborness mean?

A stubborn person shows dogged determination not to change one's attitude or position on something, especially in spite of good arguments or reasons to do so.

It is the tendency to resist any form of change.

Stubborness is effectively a resistance to life itself and leads nowhere.

Anything new or different or involving change is perceived (perhaps unconsciously) as a direct threat- even if the change in question is positive and in the person's best interest.

If you think you may be stubborn ask yourself: Why do I resist change?

What am I afraid of?

What do I fear would happen to me if I allowed uncontrollable changes to happen?

If looking deeper ask yourself, How was I hurt in the past? Can I let it go?

What feelings or issues lie underneath procrastination?

This question was recently asked to a group of young mothers and here are their answers.

Procrastination is:

Avoiding change because change is scary.
Feeling unmotivated or depressed.
Fear of success or failure, so better not even to try.
Not knowing how to prioritize.
Struggling with commitment.
Fear of loss, so staying the same is safer.
Fear of the unknown.
Laziness.
Lack of organizational skills.
Perfectionism.
Poor or non-existent work habits.

How long does it take to form a new habit?

A habit is a new behaviour which becomes automatic or second nature (like brushing teeth before bedtime) over time.

Based on research done by Dr Phillipa Lally on 96 people, a new behaviour takes about 7 weeks to become habit.

The smaller the action chosen, the more likely it is to succeed. The new behaviour must be performed in the same way, same time, same place (ie same context) so that over time the body becomes cued to perform the habit.

Missing a day here and there does not reduce the chance of forming the new habit, and some habits may take longer than 7 weeks. In general, the larger the new habit, the longer it takes.

Generally doctors do not help their patients make change; they just tell their patient to loose weight, or get more sleep, or quit smoking. When faced with any major lifestyle change,  many people give up because a lifestyle change requires the assimilation of many new smaller habits into their new, healthier lifestyle.

If you are needing to develop healthier habits contact Birgit Schinke, health coach & educator, clinical counselor for help with developing your new lifestyle. 

What's the difference between a technical and an adaptive change?

The answer is from the work of Heifetz and Linsky from Harvard.

A technical change involves learning a new set of techniques or skills. It can be seen as a behaviour change via informational learning. 

An adaptive change requires a transformative turn or a change in mindset. 

One of the biggest source of failure is trying to make adaptive changes by using technical means.

For example, only 5-8% of people can loose weight by learning new technical skills, yet most try to do this. The most effective way to loose and maintain weight loss is via transformational learning.

Visit Birgit Schinke's web site if you are stuck with trying to make a change and would like support with transformational learning.

What is the Behavior Change Method for breaking old habits?

This is an active system for staying motivated while making permanent behavior change. There are 5 basic steps.

1) Increase your motivation before starting:

• write down specific reasons for change.
• talk with friends or others (a wellness buddy) who have made the change.
• use milestones in your life as targets for change (a birthday, a new job, an upcoming event)
• make a contract with yourself, or a concerned friend, spouse.

2) Keep records:

• keep a record of your old habit for one week (or weeks) before trying to change and write down triggers, or events around the habit. (ie smoke after every meal, eat ice cream every night before bed, light up a cigarette when lonely, drink alcohol after argument with spouse, and so on).

3) Set specific objectives:

• break down general goals into small specific objectives (ie for a goal to loose weight break it into something like "I will walk one hour a day everyday for a week", or I will not eat ice cream at night for this upcoming week, and so on)
• find a health coach or wellness buddy to discuss your goals and get help in breaking them down into small achievable tasks so the behavior change is not so overwhelming.
• set a time every week to review your successes of the week and to set new objectives for the next week.

4) Take action:

• get away from or remove triggers from your environment until new habit is solid.
• substitute a competing behavior for the habit you are trying to change (ie. brush your teeth after a meal instead of smoking, or drink a glass of water when craving ice cream, and so on. Refer to step 2 for your list of triggers and use this to plan.
• break behavior chains; a habit is a series of various behaviors strung together. If you interrupt any one of the smaller behaviors in the behavior chain the chance of changing the overall habit is much better. 
• reward yourself; (ie develop a reward system such as for every cigarette pack not bought but that money towards a vacation, and so on)
• plan small steps; break down an overwhelming goal into small steps (ie start by walking around the block everyday and work towards joining a running group)
• use imagery; (ie rehearse how you might refuse a cigarette when a friend offers you one, or imagine how you will look after you loose the first 10 pounds)
• get help from others; (ie join a group, tell your friends and ask for encouragement, find a coach or change counselor, and so on)

5) Maintain new behavior:

• keep track of your change (ie weigh yourself once a week, keep an exercise log in your journal, find an accountability buddy, ask friends for feedback, and so on) 
• if you "fall off the wagon" catch it sooner than later and go back to Step 1 above; this is why frequent feedback is so useful.
• focus on your new outcome rather than your failure. focus on what worked or went well for you and build on that.
• remember a slip is much better than a total relapse.
• investigate your slip for new learning's which you can use towards your new objective.

Many people struggle with breaking old habits and sometimes troublesome habits can make the difference between life and death. Contact Birgit Schinke for help for your particular situation. She is available in person, by email, or via Skype.

What is energy management?

Energy management, simply put, refers to how one manages their energy, not only their time. This can look like

1) Pursue what you love. Passion is energy; it's much easier to stay motivated over something you are passionate about.

2) Do the most difficult work in the mornings when you are well rested and have the most energy. This flips our instinct which is to move towards pleasure away from pain. Studies have found that people are most effective when they delay gratification. 

3) Practice or work intensely. Work hard for 90 minutes, then take a break. The greatest performers only practice for 4.5 hours a day. In other words, short and hard shows better results than long and dragging.

4) Take frequent breaks so to give your brain the capacity to integrate the new learnings or practices.

5) Turn your practices into rituals (same time, same sequence, etc) so that they become automatic and you don't have to waste energy thinking about doing them.  


 See Birgit Schinke's practice in which she uses Motivational Interviewing to help those who wish to change behaviours or improve performancs.

Why is change so difficult?

This has to do with basic brain physiology. When learning something new we use our "working memory" which requires much energy to function and fatigues easily as it has limited cognitive resources.  Because the "working memory" can easily get overwhelmed, it pushes repetitive  activity into the basal ganglia (or automatic pilot parts of the brain). Once this happens we have a new habit, we can do the new activity without thinking. This frees up cognitive resources for the "working memory" part of the brain.

Forging new brain circuits, as in learning something new, is exhausting. It's like walking through a huge snow bank, rather than
taking the already shovelled trail. We have to go slower, pay more attention, and put in much more effort. Consequently, some people give up learning new things.