The first step to coping with change is to understand the brain’s initial response to it. This discrepancy and conflict of feelings within us can be very unnerving but it is normal. For example, in the case of the Coronavirus, many of us know things have changed drastically but our brains are struggling to really believe it. This activation of the conflict sensor becomes stressful for people.” Put simply, Cognitive Dissonance is that uncomfortable feeling that you get where you try to maintain two inconsistent beliefs at the same time or when you believe in one thing but act in a contradictory way. According to Dr Srini Pillay, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, when there’s change, “the conflict sensors in the brain become activated and this causes brain chaos that we call cognitive dissonance. Our brains are powerful tools, tools that can become weapons, and in the instance of change, that’s exactly what they become. An important thing to remember is: our brains are wired to resist change To help you get through this difficult period, here are our essential coping strategies if you want to know how to cope with big life changes. While we can’t stop change from happening, we can control how we respond to it so that we come through the other end even stronger than before. It’s increasingly becoming clear that we are not in a 3-month blip but a time of immense societal change. With such a sudden and drastic change to life as we know it, we have all been hit with the reality that we can’t control every aspect of our lives and many of us are struggling to deal with that fact.

The professional services industry poised for large-scale redundancy programmes.The older generation, especially grandparents becoming very proficient at using video calling technology such as Facetime, Zoom etc.No large conferences or gatherings to happen for potentially at least a year.International travel becoming almost impossible in the short-term.Major cities, such as London, putting together proposals to make their city centres car free.Home working being the norm for office workers.What many of us are needing to learn very quickly is how to cope with big life changes? ( And maybe not just cope with survive and then thrive!) What may have been unthinkable in January is now happening such as: As we go further and further into this new normal caused by Coronavirus it is becoming very obvious that the world is changing rapidly around us.

Ktso couple big changes