The ability to adapt to change is one of the main skills required in today's world, both in the personal and professional spheres.
The pandemic has suddenly brought us face to face with a long-known truth. Panta rei. Everything flows. Change is a constant. Burnout levels during and post pandemic have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. As well as mental health issues.
In the world defined by BANI experts, a brittle (fragile), anxious (anxious), non - linear (non-linear), incomprehensible (incomprehensible) world, develop resilience, adaptability and flexibility allows you to reduce stress and maintain a high level of well-being at 360°.
In this interview we had the pleasure of discussing with Manuela Vellone Life Coach of Trainect to learn more about tips and tricks on how to deal with change and feel good in today's world.
Why is it so important today to know how to adapt?
After the pandemic, I think the concept that everything can change, and maybe even suddenly, has become very clear to everyone. Today everything around us is faster, today infinite new possibilities have opened up for each of us, I am also simply thinking of the world of work and the new professional roles that are being created in the digital world, in new technologies, in innovation, in sustainability. In short, staying still and motionless today means keeping your eyes closed in the face of these changes and passively suffering the consequences. Not to mention that, much more generally, knowing how to adapt and always knowing how to start over from new situations means being able to enrich and improve as individuals.
Why can change generate stress and psycho-physical discomfort?
First of all, because our brain is programmed for mere survival and acts in an "energy saving" mode. So it's much easier for him to keep doing the same things, stay in contexts that he knows very well and defend himself against everything new because it can be potentially dangerous for us. Making different choices and changing involves much more effort and energy. And then changing means moving from a known situation to an unknown situation and this generates uncertainty in us. And here all our internal strengths and resistances come into play to go against this change. Being related to survival, we must think that the defense mechanisms can sometimes be very strong and cause us not only stress but also physical discomfort.
What are your suggestions for training for change and maintaining a good level of psycho-physical well-being?
The first thing I always say when talking about resistance and fear in the face of change is to try to ask ourselves this question: "How much does it really cost me not to change? What am I really risking missing out on?”
And then we don't always have to think about drastic, enormous and sudden changes. We can also make small daily/weekly/monthly changes. Because this way it's like a real workout: slowly we'll be more and more used to change.
And finally, let's learn about the real contribution that can come from visualization. If we train ourselves, even in this practice, to visualize new things and situations that we would like to have in our lives, it is as if we are going to get our brain used to these new things. And thus, it will tend to no longer identify them as something unknown to be pushed away and to be fought because it is unknown and therefore potentially dangerous for us, but they will become increasingly familiar and all defense mechanisms will disappear.
Last thing: always remember that we must understand that we are the first responsible and protagonists of our changes, we cannot and must not wait for external factors or people to "save" us.
What can companies do to support workers in coping with change?
Definitely address this issue, even over and over again in different ways. But talking about what change really is and how normal it is to be afraid and resist is the first very important step, in my opinion. Through moments of awareness, webinars, technological solutions such as Trainect. Therefore, in a more general way, be really attentive to the issue of the importance of the psycho-physical well-being of one's own people.
And then give tools/resources that can be of support in these phases of great change.
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