I
find fascinating gospel implications in Alan Deutschman's article,
"Change
or Die,"
in FastCompany.
The article discusses recent scientific findings about why it's so
hard for people to change.
For
example, heart patients facing death keep eating the wrong foods and
smoking, not responding to the dire threats of their physicians.
Logic alone does little to motivate change in habits, as we should
all know by now. But dramatic change in a person's behavior is
possible when there is also emotional reinforcement —
nurturing.
But
many more change when the emotions of the patients are considered
(e.g., focusing on an increased joy in living as a reason for change
versus being threatened with death) and when the patients are given
support and encouragement from many sides.
Here
is a brief excerpt:
Look
again at the case of heart patients. The best minds at Johns Hopkins
and the Global Medical Forum might not know how to get them to
change, but someone does: Dr. Dean Ornish, a professor of medicine at
the University of California at San Francisco and founder of the
Preventative Medicine Research Institute, in Sausalito, California.
Ornish
... realizes the importance of going beyond the facts. "Providing
health information is important but not always sufficient," he
says. "We also need to bring in the psychological, emotional,
and spiritual dimensions that are so often ignored."
Ornish
published studies in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals,
showing that his holistic program, focused around a vegetarian diet
with less than 10% of the calories from fat, can actually reverse
heart disease without surgery or drugs. Still, the medical
establishment remained skeptical that people could sustain the
lifestyle changes.
In
1993, Ornish persuaded Mutual of Omaha to pay for a trial.
Researchers took 333 patients with severely clogged arteries. They
helped them quit smoking and go on Ornish's diet. The patients
attended twice-weekly group support sessions led by a psychologist
and took instruction in meditation, relaxation, yoga, and aerobic
exercise.
The
program lasted for only a year. But after three years, the study
found, 77% of the patients had stuck with their lifestyle changes —
and safely avoided the bypass or angioplasty surgeries that they were
eligible for under their insurance coverage. And Mutual of Omaha
saved around $30,000 per patient.
Why
does the Ornish program succeed while the conventional approach has
failed? For starters, Ornish recasts the reasons for change. Doctors
had been trying to motivate patients mainly with the fear of death,
he says, and that simply wasn't working. For a few weeks after a
heart attack, patients were scared enough to do whatever their
doctors said. But death was just too frightening to think about, so
their denial would return, and they'd go back to their old ways....
So
instead of trying to motivate them with the "fear of dying,"
Ornish reframes the issue. He inspires a new vision of the "joy
of living" — convincing them they can feel better, not
just live longer. That means enjoying the things that make daily life
pleasurable, like making love or even taking long walks without the
pain caused by their disease. "Joy is a more powerful motivator
than fear," he says....
[It
is also] vital to give people the multifaceted support they need.
That's a big reason why 90% of heart patients can't change their
lifestyles but 77% of Ornish's patients could — because he
buttressed them with weekly support groups with other patients, as
well as attention from dieticians, psychologists, nurses, and yoga
and meditation instructors.
Now
think of the process of conversion. Just preaching hellfire and
damnation does little to change a person's behavior in the long run.
The joy and peace that the Gospel brings in this life seems to be a
more immediate motivator, coupled, of course, with the far-off
promises of eternal life. Further, the LDS approach of nurturing our
members with home teachers, caring Church leaders, friends, teachers,
and others provides a powerful aide for the challenges of radical
change in behavior.
Understanding
the human dynamics of change reminds me of why we need a Church. We
need to be fellow citizens in a community based on the foundation of
Christ. We need each other if we are ever going to change and move
one iota in the direction Christ has set before us.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.