The 4 Transition Stages for Mindful, Heart-centered, Behavior Change
Since becoming a holistic health coach 15 years ago, I quickly sensed the importance of noting the stages of behavior change for achieving a health goal. Much literature and research has been developed over the past couple of decades regarding behavior change and goals. It’s fortunate to have all these models and frameworks at one’s disposal and synthesize best practices.
I’ve created a framework on how to transition in accordance to specific stages of behavior change. My outlook accentuates a mindful and heart-centered approach for these 4 overarching stages. Perhaps you can relate to the 4 stages framed in this way. They’re a guide for you to successfully navigate life transitions as you move toward improving your quality of life.
Following a holistic approach, health goals comprise nearly all areas of one’s well-being and lifestyle. You can place any area of concern to which you want to improve within this framework. As you move yourself through each stage, you bring the awareness and techniques into each successive stage.
1)Know Yourself
Let’s start with mindfulness. Self-awareness is at the basis for what’s going to transpire. The purpose of this first stage is to provide clear indication of where you are regarding any concern at the given moment you’re desiring the change. Think of the saying “How can you get where you’re going, if you don’t know where you’re starting from?”
This stage helps you to clarify “you are here” as you engage the transition toward your health goal. This part of the process aligns with how you identify your traits based on the proficiency of your behaviors. Focusing on the behavior can bring more room for movement and growth. Identifying your actions and goals can provide motivation and commitment. But you don’t want to wrap your whole identity on the achievement of goals. You what to find your most aligned balance in having healthy aspects of identity and behavior associations.
Through a technique of creating and stating affirmations, you’ll develop a stronger focus in knowing yourself. A deliberate focus for this stage is to hold yourself “in the now” regarding how you’re showing up in your day. Once you have presence “in the now” you set the intention to build the bridging habits and behaviors that will bring you closer toward who you’re becoming.
There’s power in creating a routine exercise for acknowledging your past impressions of successes and your perceived failures. Through this acknowledgement technique you can frame any previous experience as a positive attribute for the person you’ve become. As this stage acknowledges previous accomplishments, you can reconstruct the working parts for mindfulness around future aspirations. Taking ownership of the transferrable qualities and skills you possess to achieve your goals. Learning a wonderful assessment tool that you can have in your “tool box” whenever you need it.
2) Clarify Your Mission
Once you can clearly define who you are and where you’re at, you want to have a clear understanding of your mission. This stage allows you to determine how you’ll navigate getting to where you’d like to go. You’ll answer questions like, “What’s the larger goal you’re setting out to achieve?” and “What mission is driving you?”
With this stage you’ll explore the resources available to you for determining the over-riding purpose that keeps you moving forward. This stage reviews visualization techniques that keep the goal in sight, without getting lost in it. You’ll learn techniques on how to prioritize your level of perspective with your level of concern. Your mission will inform your stride and pacing for each specified goal.
What is your true north or north star? I also like to refer to an end goal as a lighthouse. You can view your behavior change as the means in which you navigate to reach the destination in the distance. Whether it be called a mission, a lighthouse, or a north star, was does it look like for you? How can you distinctly describe it in terms of a mission statement?
Even when taking a gradual, process-oriented approach, you want to have some possible manifestation in mind of a future point/place in which you’ll arrive. How would you describe the version of yourself that arrives at that position? How is that version of you aligned with the mission for which you’ve set out?
3) Resolve Emotional Contrast
This stage addresses any discord that might arise for you during your process. You want to honor your emotions that come up, rather than push them away or stuff them down. Emotionality is a gift; it contributes to your empowerment when in the flow. When it comes to behavior change for health goals, the occurrence of emotional contrast can be overlooked. For long-lasting change, pushing through emotions won’t suffice.
During transitions, there’s inherent contrast of emotions that will arise for every individual who shift’s their behavior change. This stage explores techniques you find compatible for how you resolve emotional contrast (also referred to as “inner conflict”) . This is where you can explore metaphysical concepts, attraction exercises, and physio-spiritual practices. You’ll learn how to bridge the gap between the discord you’re feeling and the feeling you desire to have.
What does this look like when “in the flow.” There’s an emotional feedback that occurs between your actions and your thoughts. You want to tap into the feedback to reshape the cycle of thoughts, which can then lead new actions. Creating room for incremental change while maximizing improvement. Continually take note of good feelings and use this for positive reinforcement. Conversely, if you notice yourself having defeating or low feelings, honor the emotion; don’t get stuck there. See it as feedback for shifting your thoughts in creating the next actions.
Similar to the first stage of bringing self-awareness, this stage may also connect you with social awareness. Some of the discord you may feel can be when comparing yourself or interacting with others. You can build efficiency around reactivity and responsiveness. Techniques for this stage will transmute emotions for alignment with your goal/mission, contributing toward progress in taking action.
4) Take Action
Having completed the previous stages, you’ll be ready to take action and make achievements associated with your transition. You’ll take a step by step approach of breaking down tasks to form a clear plan of action that’s measurable and time-based. The specified clarity will progress you further into your transition.
You’ll learn tips to get organized and build a strong foundation to meet objectives. Using an objectives technique brings momentum and confidence to your experience. You’ll interpret the feedback from your actions and see, in practice, the value of resolving emotional contrast before you act. You further define the terms “objectives” and “goals” to solidify your ability to produce that which you have already manifested in your mind.
In this stage, focus can be brought to addition of new habits. In additional to changed behavior, you want to increase the placement of healthy habits that will ease the flow of those behaviors. You can also dismantle unhealthy habits that are contributing to the derailment of any of the behaviors around your desired health goals.
Some actions can be more distinctly measured: do so when it feels good to assess those measurements. You don’t want to get too caught up in achieving a ‘goal’ in lieu of honoring all that’s been acquired by engaging the process. Make assessments periodically. The process is the reward; meeting the goal is a moment within that process. It’s a wonderful moment to integrate and re-assess.
