Many people may think they know what needs to change and still find themselves doing the same thing again.

Perhaps a person knows their posture contributes to recurring tension or pain, yet their body keeps returning to the same position. Someone may intellectually know why a situation triggers them emotionally, yet they continue reacting to it in the same way. Or a person may know what would support their well-being, relationships or personal growth, but something keeps getting in the way of doing it.

It can be frustrating. After all, if people understand the problem, it seems they should be able to change it. Yet, this is not necessarily the case.

Knowing Is Not the Same as Integrating

People tend to rely heavily on the conscious mind to create change. They gather information, analyze their behavior, make decisions and tell themselves what they should or shouldn’t do. Yet, many patterns operate beyond conscious thought.

People spend time, energy and money trying to change habitual patterns not serving them, often to no avail. Then, they may feel shame for not getting the results they wanted or simply give up.

Research on habits published in the Annual Review of Psychology supports that repeated responses can continue to influence behavior even when conscious intentions have changed. Bodies also develop habitual ways of moving and responding. Emotions carry the effects of previous experiences. Beliefs formed long ago can continue influencing reactions even after the conscious mind has decided they no longer make sense or are beneficial.

This is why trying harder isn’t always the answer. A whole-person challenge cannot necessarily be solved with only one part of the self.

Inviting More of the Self Into the Solution

Integrated Functioning is based on a simple premise: Sustainable change becomes possible when the different body parts and various aspects of a person are increasingly working together rather than independently—or even against one another.

This can often be seen physically. Someone may consciously try to correct their posture by pulling their shoulders back or forcing themselves to sit up straight. Yet the moment their attention goes elsewhere, the old posture returns.

As a person learns to move in a more natural and integrated way of functioning, the unhelpful acquired habit can gradually fade away and the natural way increasingly shows up organically and effortlessly.

The same principle can apply in other dimensions of life. A person may consciously want greater confidence while a part of them associates visibility with danger. Someone may want intimacy while carrying protective responses created by a previous hurt. A person may desperately want change while something within believes that remaining with the familiar is safer.

Unfortunately, neither information nor willpower necessarily resolves that conflict. First, a person may need to become curious about these unconscious parts of them that are interfering with what the conscious mind wants.

Experience Can Reach Where Explanation Cannot

This is why experiential practices can be so powerful. Movement, mindful awareness, meditation, energy practices, breath, sound and other forms of embodied experience can offer opportunities to step outside usual analytical loops and experience oneself differently.

Instead of intellectually understanding that another possibility exists, a person experiences that possibility. Sometimes the shift is immediate and unmistakable. At other times, it happens gradually as new experiences are repeated and strengthened.

Becoming Part of the Solution

Perhaps the goal isn’t to fight the parts of the self that resist change. Instead, imagine what could happen if those parts were instead approached with curiosity.

Habits, beliefs and protective responses often develop in response to earlier experiences. Becoming aware of the emotions connected with those experiences—in ways a person can comfortably handle in the present—may help that person relate differently to patterns that are no longer helpful.

It’s also useful to bring gratitude to the parts that resist change while recognizing that many of them originally developed in an effort to protect. Rather than fighting them, appreciating their intention can become another doorway toward fruitful cooperation.

Ultimately, meaningful change isn’t simply about knowing more. It’s about gradually bringing together what a person knows, feels, has learned through the body, and deeply wants into greater integrated functioning.

And perhaps this is where the missing link has been all along—not another piece of information, but greater integration of the wisdom already within.

Cécile Raynor is the creator of Integrated Functioning, the author of The Wise Way to Yoga and Body Wisdom Magic and owner of Cécile’s Wise Ways. Through experiential approaches integrating body intelligence and conscious awareness with emotional and energetic dimensions, she helps people discover and shift patterns that may be getting in the way of greater ease, well-being and vitality. She’ll be offering several events in November and December listed in the What’sNew? section of CecileRaynor.com. For more information, to register for an upcoming event or to make an appointment, call 857-245-9488 or visit her website.