Sophrology: supporting changes

Promote fluidity.

” You haven’t changed since high school! “(Funny compliment)
“She has changed a lot!” (With a pout, and the implication” what a pity!”)
“I’m like that, period!” (Stubbornly, arms crossed, frowning).
“I’ve always done it like that, I’m going to change now! “(Same attitude)

We have all heard or uttered these types of sentences. Refusal to change, stuck in posture or dismay at the spectacle of an era when “everything changes so fast!” 

Very often, the source of immobility is the feeling of fear, faced with the unknown, the risk and the possibility of error or loss. This is the reflex of the turtle or the hedgehog, who both freeze in front of the potential danger, one by entering his shell, the other by taking out his quills.

There is another possible attitude. To this fear, we can respond with the following qualities: fluidity, curiosity, adaptability, openness, information, action, acceptable risk taking.
The stranger questions our attitude towards life: is it such a huge problem if I am wrong? Wouldn’t it be worse to not move?

A paradox: adapt to guarantee stability.

Can you imagine a skier who would freeze his legs and trunk in an arbitrary posture, calculated before the start of the race, and who would maintain it throughout his descent? It wouldn’t last 10 meters!
What gives him stability is his ability to negotiate variations in terrain and snow quality, flexibly adapting his position.
Adaptation not to the whims and desires of others, but to her undetermined objective reality (what I am, my abilities and skills, and to what extent I can develop them), and adaptation to reality (external circumstances, the environment in which I live).

It is also the only way to turn failure into success, by learning from it; and when circumstances overwhelm us, to rediscover a form of creativity, synonymous with resilience, which allows us to regain control in the conduct of our existence.
Theories, ideologies and religions fail when they get stuck in a linear, exoteric and exclusive interpretation of the world. Buddhism (which inspired, among other oriental techniques, sophrology) and Vedanta had understood it millennia ago, which proclaim the impermanence of phenomena, of life in general, and advocate attention to the ‘present time.

The world is changing, and today’s societies even more so. To maintain our goals, we must constantly readjust to the circumstances. What was relevant yesterday is no longer relevant today. We no longer evolve on certainties and linear, stable and fixed structures, but within complex networks in constant transformation, as claimed by Michel Serres and Joël de Rosnay.

To evolve in this changing environment, we need more an ethic of timeless values ​​which would not give us a frozen use of the world, but rather to know how to be together and with the world, whatever the circumstances. This new global contract remains to be invented.

Good news.

Accepting change is more than ever a contemporary challenge. Easy to say, certainly! Face your doubts, overcome your fear, let go of your certainties, accept questioning …
– On a personal level, this requires real courage, an unshakable will, the capacity not to give in to all protective reactions in “ism” (“fanaticism, protectionism, racism, neo-liberalism” … all synonyms for ” egocentrism “), and the need to know how to select and surround yourself with people who can understand and support this dynamic (relatives, friends, and why not therapists).
– On a global level (the world in which we live), contribute to change is one of the best ways to make it acceptable to us. This is the (only?) good news in this new global “disorder”: the advent, via Web 2.0 and networks of all kinds, of another form of democracy, transversal this time, which manifests itself, in particular through “crowd sourcing”, “crowd funding”, “co-working”, etc; all these new modes of expression, production and consumption known as “participatory”, which call on everyone’s mobilization and creativity.

Creative and adapted, we are them anyway from our birth, it is only advisable to become aware of it and not to lose this capacity while growing up.

In sophrology, phenomenological attitude is the basis for observing and understanding this principle of change. Dynamic relaxation exercises, strengthening and by anchoring the subject both in his body diagram and in the awareness of his personal values, allows a more serene approach to the vagaries of existence. Exercises such as SophroMnesia of the 3 ages, associated with positive action principle, during which the subject explores, “feelings” and puts into perspective the events and positive feelings of the different eras of his life, focusing for example on their successes, their evolution and what he has been able to accomplish, is a good way to reconcile consciousness with the dynamics of change, which is, like it or not, the law of the universe.

Author: Caroline GORMAND, Sophrologist.