Stages of Change
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By Aureal Williams

The stages of change provide a framework for gauging the process of change related to wellness.  This model of change applied to living in Natural Time is based on the groundbreaking, five stages of change work of J. O. Prochaska. 

Stages of Change Applied to Living with Natural Time

Precontemplation

At this stage, the person is unaware that living by mechanical time – clock time over body time—causes a problem.  If the person is aware of the internal dissonance he or she has not accepted the inner challenge to make a shift.  A person at this stage may ignore or avoid any examination of an alternate relationship with time. 

Contemplation

At this stage the person is aware that living by the priority of clock time over body time increases stress, dampens curiosity, inhibits creativity, and works against the multidimensional experience of body, senses, mind, emotions, and spirit as a whole, integrated being.

Living in mechanical time continues to hold merit, however here, the person begins to entertain thoughts about what it would mean to live in natural time. 

Preparation

In this stage, changing one’s time orientation to natural time is seen as more positive than negative.  Steps are taken to explore what it would mean to switch from living by the external clock to living in awareness of an inner sense of time.   The biggest component of this stage is a heart commitment accompanied by a rational step toward implementing a change.

Action

Here the person has taken steps toward change.  He or she is at the border of the new lifestyle, with all of the tentativeness and fragility that surrounds a new understanding of the relationship between self and time. This is a border stage between the two time consciousnesses, natural time and the more familiar mechanical time.  Here, a person is receptive to the synchronization between natural cycles and energy level; however, there is friction at this border crossing.  The person at this stage will either be drawn into the magnetic resonance of inner/outer time alignment or will drop the process of time change and revert back to living by the mechanical clock.

Maintenance

At this stage, the Individual has consistently worked on changing time consciousness and time orientation for at least six months.  Here, a person has tools at the ready for helping maintain the change.  Such tools include a support system and reminder techniques that help solidify the change in behavior as well as serve as antidote to the craving pulls toward the old ways. 

Due to the acculturation of mechanical time it can take a good two years before a person starts to automatically feel the resonance between inner and outer energy levels, which is the point of working with natural time.

Relapse

 

In the stages of change theory relapse is part of the process.  Some research has shown, for instance, that it can take someone who is trying to stop smoking up to three or four cycles of these five changes before finding the maintenance level that holds them smoke-free. 

You can reasonably expect the same cyclical process in your move from mechanical time to natural time.  The idea is to be easy on yourself and always hold the goal of living in synchronization with natural time as a viable.  Try slow and steady on the spiral, all the while holding to the heart wish of inner/outer integration.  The idea is to progress from one stage to the next, repeatedly, for as long as it takes. 

What Stage Are You In Now?

Current time awareness	Your response	Stage	Self-interventions
Do your feel like your never have enough time and can do nothing about it?	1. Always 2. Sometimes 3. Never	Precontemplation	1.  Spend time thinking about the control the external clock has over your life. 2.  Pay attention to the rhythm of your best time of day, this is often your birth time of day.
Have you ever thought about changing your relationship with time so that you have personal choice regarding time?	1. Yes 2. No	Contemplation	1. Have you considered, or remembered, that there is another way to live with time and still be productive and accomplishing? 2. What it would mean to pay attention to your own energy levels and still get your work done?
If yes, are you willing to do explore what it takes to make this change?	1. Yes 2.  No	Preparation	1. Do you feel the stresses of living under control of the clock on your body, mind, and spirit? 2. Do you stop, even for a few minutes, when your body feels tired, or do you keep pushing yourself to keep going?
If you have worked with natural time in some way, have you done so within the past six months?	1.Yes 2. No	Action	1. Have you stopped wearing a watch? 2. Have you started to pay attention to you inner sense of timing? 3. Have you taken steps to pay attention to the cycles of the Moon, particularly the dark of the Moon, those three days before each New Moon, and honour the pull toward stillness and quiet? 4. Have you felt the surge of energy with each New Moon? 5. Have you paid attention to and honoured your best time of day by not forcing yourself to function at your fullest during your worst time of day?
Have you been working on making a change to natural time for at least six months?	1.Yes 2. No	Maintenance	1. Have you been tracking your own rhythms and working with them rather than against them? 2. If you are working with the Collective and the Personal Dark of the Moon are you allowing yourself to minimize your schedule during the Dark of the Moon Periods? 3. Are you taking advantage in the surges of energy that you feel in peak natural cycles?
Have you made a heart commitment to live by natural time?			1. Are you paying attention to what your body tells you about endurance and stamina and pacing and rest and activity levels? 2. Are you coming to awareness of the actual benefits of living in synchronization of natural time?
Do you have a   supply of reminder tools and a support system to call on as you change your relationship with time?			1. Have you set up a system in your calendar for tracking the low energy periods? 2.  Have you enlisted the support of yourself, your family, friends, and co- workers during your low energy periods? 3. Have you provided an array of choices for your low energy down times, such as good books to read, a journal to use, open time on your schedule for naps and walks, a movie? 4. Have you established a system of reviewing goals of the past cycle, of letting go, of having non-thinking time, and then setting goals for the new cycle? 5. Do you talk about the benefits of living in natural time with those whom you care about? 6. Do you remind yourself that aligning with natural time is a subtle and slow process, one that you are continually learning more about and deepening your connection with?

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