Every day of reading through the training material for UFS brings a renewed sense of purpose, an urgency for action, new wisdom and more empathy to all forms of suffering. This is a lesson I learnt today in the context of health education and its importance in community health services.
'Self-efficacy is one of the most important precursors to behavior change, is a good predictor of future behavior, and has many important implications in health education. It is one of the constructs of Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Self-efficacy supports the notion that successful behavior change requires that a person have a strong belief in their ability to exercise control over a behavior, or learn a new behavior...'
The lesson, however, extends beyond the sphere of health education, and it should not be mistaken for brainwashing. The important message is, having understood the benefits of following a certain practice, be it meditation, exercise, a healthy diet, or a way of thinking, one must then also believe that one is capable of taking the necessary steps required to achieve that benefit; in other words, one must allow oneself the confidence that he/she can overcome internal barriers to growth, change detrimental habits, and follow up with incremental positive changes in the right direction.
Baby steps to a lofty ideal with faith and sincerity. Believe! :)
The Fasting Verses (cont.)
12 years ago
4 comments:
this was brilliant and insightful. thanks for sharing!
So true! Relates to a conversation that 8&20 and I were having yesterday too about how it takes faith [in this case, faith in ourselves] to choose a new reality for ourselves.
When it comes to behavior modification, I think the trick is to find a plan that works for yourself. e.g., to get myself to start flossing every day (this was after taking a health psychology class in college in which we did behavior modification projects) I put up an index card in my bathroom reading "I love to floss!". Cheesy positive affirmations on a regular basis really can work, at least for me.
You're absolutely right bb. Cheesy or not, what works, works. A month ago, at work my team and I were struggling with a particularly challenging project and I would come home drained everyday. Until one day (maybe something sub-consciously triggered it) I remembered the song 'We shall overcome' which has inspired a Hindi version whose first line literally translates to 'We shall be successful'. I then wrote those lines out and stuck it on my bench! Simply looking at it everyday and remembering the gusto with which the song is sung was enough to inspire me. It also started a positive energy loop within my team, each person would come up and ask what the squiggles in Hindi meant and the transformation would be complete within seconds of explaining what it stood for!
Yep, it's true. Faith makes the world go around.
that's beautiful and inspiring you guys. tnh also suggests keeping a post-it up that says "are you sure?", so that we don't ever get too attached to our points of view. i like having to ask ourselves "are you sure?" every single time...
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