chological immunities to change protect us from doing something undesirable when our amygdala perceives a threat ( Kegan & Lahey , 2009 ). A subconscious system of protection will operate to prevent us from changing our behaviors . This provides insight as to why behavior change is so difficult and why the status quo endures .
A symptom of our discomfort with inner work is a tendency to slip into one of two narratives :
1 . I don ’ t need inner work ; other people need to change , not me .
2 . It ’ s all my fault ; I will do what I need to do to quickly make amends .
Neither of these extremes capture the complexity of context , nor the lifelong journey that is inner work , and both create barriers to accurate self-assessment and investment in working on ourselves .
It can also be tempting to resort to coping mechanisms to manage the swell of emotion that comes with this type of activation . Busyness is one such coping mechanism known as displacement . Instead of leaning into the inner work , we busy ourselves with distractions to avoid the pain and discomfort of grief work and self-investigation . We tell ourselves stories that we “ don ’ t have time ” or that “ I ’ ve done my inner work .” In doing so , we rob ourselves of discovery and healing . Prolonging our inner work results in held body trauma , impacting our psychological and physiological health , that
CSEE Connections