Can You Really Teach An Old Dog New Tricks?

Self- sabotaging health is very common and mostly associated with bad eating habits, lack of exercise, smoking etc. But more serious and much more hazardous is resistance to change. You can't change your bad habits without dealing with change.

Its only logical that you can't modify bad habits without introducing change. On a more fundamental level, resistance can imply hanging on to disease. As outrageous as that may seem, suffering, disease and any other unpleasant experiences that proceed for long periods of time are integrated as a habit. You literally get used to being uncomfortable and make necessary compensations to accommodate. For some people health situations introduce advantages and even profits which color health in pretty grim colors.

Although change is the most prominent tendency in the universe, humans tend to prefer the comfort of familiarity over dealing with the unknown associated with change because it feels safer. Security is an essential psychological need and most people avoid jeopardizing or giving it up even when the consequences are hanging on to unhealthy habits.

Despite what seems as basic illogic, this phenomena is related to the Chaos Theory introduced by a Belgian, Nobel prize awarded chemist named Ilya Prigogin.

Prigogine is best known for his definition of dissipative structures and their role in thermodynamic systems. Dissipative systems are dynamic systems characterized by a state of input and output. The system maintains its inner stability by dissipating excess build up such as waste products. According to that definition, the human entity is a dissipative structure.

Dissipative structures have thresholds, which relate to the largest amount of input the system can take in and still maintain inner balance by releasing output. If the degree of input is higher than what the system can release as output, the threshold is stimulated.

When a system's threshold is challenged there are only two possible outcomes. One is collapses and death the other is re-organization at a new level of functioning. Re-organized systems are capable of handling the degree of input that caused the old system to collapse, Therefore collapse and re-organization considerably improve the overall level of functioning.

A good example is road systems. Input refers to the amount of cars entering the system to drive places. Output is the amount of cars that go off the road system. Congestion occurs when the amount of cars driving a road (input) exceed the amount of cars leaving the road (output) and indicates that the system reached its threshold. New road systems that have more lanes and higher car capacity upgrade the system, re-organizing it at a higher level of functioning. Car congestion is a state of disorder and chaos.

Prigogine's chaos theory implies that by challenging thresholds and initiating re-organization, change is created out of disorder and chaos. Systems can re-settle in infinite ways, which causes the process to be highly unpredictable.Associating the chaos theory with human lives means that change is created when our old patterns are incapable of dealing with the situations of our lives and we reach our physical mental or emotional thresholds. In practicality this means that we are incapable of dealing with a particular life situation and experience varying degrees of disorder or chaos in this regard. The feeling of chaos shifts only after the system re-stabilizes at its new level of functioning.

When people divorce, for example, at least one partner reaches their threshold and can't bear the relationship any more. The decision to separate throws the system into temporary chaos that leads to re-organization. Once the divorce and acclimation processes are complete, individual levels of functioning are higher, indicated by the renewed ability to monitor levels of input verses output. Form has changed but balance is restored.

Given that change is the outcome of chaos resistance to change is easily understandable. In real life situations, most people embrace familiarity as a source of security although that usually means hanging on to old and harmful patterns, instead of walking boldly into the unknown.

Coping with change is a central factor in healing. I strongly suggest that if and when you decide to tackle conditions that you've dealt with for a long time you keep in mind that chaos is just another aspect of the process and welcome it as an indication that you're on the right track.