Breaking the Pattern: The 7 C's of Change

I created The 7 C's of Change model after I started seeing patterns in my life, and began to look at what might cause me to repeat harmful behavior.

First, there is Conscious Awareness, when our subconscious meets our conscious. This is that first inkling, when we hear an internal voice, or our body responds to something to get our attention. This is our intuition starting a dialogue with us. For many reasons, societal, cultural, or familial, we have moved away from following our intuition. But, in that moment of Conscious Awareness, we have a Choice to look at the message we are receiving and make a Change in the course of the event we are experiencing. If we are in tune with what's happening, we will make the Change and the inkling goes away. If not, the Conscious Awareness elevates to Concern.

Concern is when the intuitive voice gets a little bit louder. We start to squirm a bit, and our body gets more agitated. Not choosing to change begins to be uncomfortable. Again, if we tune in to the intuitive signs and make the change, the troubling signs will disappear. However, most of us still ignore the Concerned feeling and choose to stay the course. Most often this is due to our logical brains telling us that following our intuition doesn't "make sense."

When we continue to ignore the signs, we reach the point of Critical Mass. Despite the dire sound of this stage, it is not the end of the process. If we choose to change the course of how we got to this point, the intuition is satisfied and it will stop sending the urgent messages. And yet, most of us continue to ignore the signs, even at this level of discomfort.

And so we move to Crisis. A significant portion of our population lives in the Crisis stage, sometimes for months or years, continually denying that Change is necessary. I lived in Crisis for nearly seven years, ignoring every piece of information that told me that Change was not only necessary, it was absolutely essential to my well-being. Denial is not a river in Egypt. But I was layered in it. More indications from my internal sources (mental, emotional, and physical responses) continued to indicate that Change was necessary. And yet, I maintained a relentless belief that I couldn't or didn't have the ability to make the necessary changes to break the pattern.

Humans can maintain this posture indefinitely, but the toll on our bodies and minds is tremendous. Fighting our intuition is truly the fight of our life at this stage. And our intuition is always right. So although we think we are winning the battle, we are losing the war.

Despite our best attempts at trying to influence the ways we receive, interpret, and control the message, the universe has its own methods of helping us see our way to our divine purpose. Ignoring, fighting, or denying the intuition's existence and importance is done so with great peril to our physical and spiritual well-being.

This is true because intuition is the voice of guidance that leads us on the path of fulfilling our destiny. While we may believe that not following that voice works, in the end, the forces of the universe will overpower our ego, and ultimately cause the Chaos that precedes the existence of order.

Some people I've shared this model with believe that they are in Chaos, not Crisis. Here's the difference: we can stay in Crisis indefinitely; it's a "stage." Chaos is a very short, very precise, and very direct event that we have absolutely no control over, and which, in the end, literally turns our world upside down. This can take the form of someone being caught doing something illegal, a house burning, a serious illness, or a car accident.

The accumulation of energy from our inaction, our ego's relentless attachment to the outcome, or our fear of changing what we know so well, even though it's dangerous to our health and well-being, will eventually build to the point that Chaos will inevitably occur.

Chaos nearly always causes us to make that Change that will bring us peace. However, some people continue to repeat the patterns, still not willing to embrace that their life would improve radically if they did. Those people are harmful to themselves and others, and will likely push themselves to a quick demise, whether by illness, accident, or violence. Operating from fear has become a way of life for them. They cannot see a way out of their current existence. They have completely denied their intuitive voice.