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The Universal Cycles
of Change
Patterns in Nature Translated to Human Behavior
Kristine Hallbom (bio)
We can learn so much about ourselves from observing the lives of cells, the
growth of trees, the waves in the ocean, along with other universal and
biological patterns of growth and self creation. Nature is our greatest
teacher. Since humans are a part of nature and our universe is 15 billion
years old, it seems obvious that there must be some kind of connection
between the patterns that exist outside of ourselves and the unconscious
patterns that reside within us.
For the last 16 years I have been observing nature and studying the laws of
our universe with the same question in mind. “How is our inner reality
directly related to our outer reality, and how do the two affect one
another?” This has led me on a long journey that has included studying
cybernetics, the sciences of complexity, autopoiesis, chaos theory,
morphogenetic fields, quantum mechanics and string theory; coupled with NLP
and many other psychological and spiritual models. Through this ongoing
research and many long–winded discussions with my husband, Tim Hallbom—we’ve
developed a model to help you consciously create what you want in life
called the universal cycles of change.
The universal cycles of change are an ongoing process that’s been happening
in our universe for about 15 billion years, so it is a really old model. We
have observed seven universal cycles of change that occur in all living
systems such as plants, trees, stars, cells, and animals. You can also see
these same cycles occurring in most nonliving systems such as cars, houses,
computers, and the economy.
The universal cycles of change can also be found within all aspects of human
life and behavior. They happen in marriages, in business, with health, with
families, with various states of mind and so on. We go through these cycles
every day and every year of our life. Being aware of these cycles can help
us to consciously create the kinds of life experiences that we want, and to
bring forth the reality of our choice. The people who do well in life are
naturally attuned to these cycles of change.
Here is a brief description of the seven universal cycles of change that
have been identified (A more detailed description of these cycles is
provided later in the article):
Creation–This cycle is about new beginnings. All systems must have a
starting point of some kind.
Growth–when a living system begins to grow and develop, it becomes “self
organizing.”
Complexity to Maturity–As a system begins to take shape and form through
continued growth, it becomes more complex to the point where it reaches what
we call a “steady state. “A system operates at its best when it is in a
steady state.
Turbulence–When the system becomes too complex in its growth, problems begin
to develop and turbulence sets in. Turbulence is considered feedback from
the environment that the system's complex state can no longer be supported.
Something has to shift for it to go to the next level of creation and
growth. If this shift does not occur, then chaos will set in.
Chaos–This is when the system begins to fall apart because it has become too
complex, and chaos sets it. The system can no longer hold it all together.
Droppings Off–Once chaos has set in, there must be some kind of a letting go
or dropping off to bring the system back into balance.
Meditation and Dormancy– This is the final cycle in which the ystem regains
its balance, which will allow it to recycle back up into…
Creation. The system now has less mass, yet more energy because it contains
all the learnings from the previous cycles.
Everything in our universe evolves and grows, and has been doing so for
billions of years. Part of this natural evolutionary process includes going
through different states of change. Let's take a tree for example, since its
the easiest metaphor I've found to describe the universal cycles of change.
The first cycle that a tree goes through is that of creation, which happens
when a seed gets planted. Then the tree grows—given that it has been
provided with enough water and sunshine to grow. Over time the tree reaches
a steady state of maturity in which all of its leaves have blossomed with
complete beauty. Then the autumn season sets in; the leaves begin to change
color. They turn brown and drop off to the ground. After this happens, the
tree stands in dormancy without any leaves. But then spring comes around,
the tree sprouts new leaves and the whole process of creation happens again.
Because all living systems get too complex in their growth and development,
they must have some kind of a dropping off to regain their balance. Trees do
this all the time with their leaves. We can learn a lot by modelling trees.
Have you ever been walking by a tree and its leaves are falling off. And all
of a sudden you hear the tree crying out, “Pleeeease, don't let my leaves
fall off!”
This never happens. The tree has mastered the art of dropping off and
recycling back up to creation. Snakes are the same way when they shed their
skin. I have never know of a snake to resist the process. Even most
computers have trash bins to drop off the excess information that can slow
down their hard drive, which thus allows for the computer to operate more
quickly and creatively.
Interestingly, there is only one living system that does not allow itself to
naturally go through this 15 billion year old process of change. This same
system allows itself to stay stuck in turbulence and chaos for extended
periods of time. This same system often resists dropping off what needs to
be dropped off. Can you guess which system it is?
Human beings of course.
People represent the only living systems that will allow themselves to stay
stuck in turbulence and chaos. They are the only living systems that will
not drop off whatever needs to be dropped off in their life. We see this
resistance happening a lot in relationships, career, and health.
For example, my husband, Tim, and I were teaching a class in Australia last
year, when a man in the group shared an amazing realization that he had
about the universal cycles of change and how they related to him. This man
had a teenage daughter who he had been unable to communicate with for
several years. After learning about the universal cycles of change, he
raised his hand and said,
“I finally understand why I have been having so many problems with my 17
year old daughter. In my mind I still think of her as a little child. I am
now realizing that I need to ‘drop off’ my perception of her as a child and
start treating her like a young adult. It makes complete sense to me why
there has been so much turbulence and chaos in our relationship over the
last couple of years.”
Another woman who attended our training in London, England, told me of an
amazing experience that she had with her children and the universal cycles
of change model. “Kris, I just have to tell you about the funniest thing
that happened to me last night. After I learned the universal cycles of
change model, I made the decision that I needed to ‘drop off’ the
co–dependent relationship that I have with my five adult children.” she said
with excitement.
“Even though my children are grown up, they are all so needy. I felt like my
life was all about them and there was no room for me. On my drive home last
night, I set the intent to release the co–dependence that has been keeping
me enmeshed with my children for so many years. After I got home, all
‘chaos’ broke loose. One by one, each child phoned me with some major
crisis. One of my children’s car broke down, the other had just broken up
with a boyfriend, another was having a bad day, and so on. The phone just
kept ringing off the hook with their problems. I told each child one by one
that they were responsible for themselves from now on and that they will
need to solve their own problems,” she said. At this point in the story, she
was glowing as she continued to say, “I just wanted to tell you that today
is the beginning of the rest of my life. I am no longer co–dependent with my
children and I can have my life back! I am going to go back to school and I
am also going to start painting again, and doing the kinds of things that
make me happy. I am going to start living my life for me now, instead of for
everyone else.”
So often people are afraid to make changes, because they are worried about
throwing their lives into turbulence and chaos. In the case of the English
woman, she was worried that her grown children would feel resentment towards
her if she was not always fully present for them. Instead of being present
for her children, she ended up resenting them because she wasn’t getting to
live the life she wanted. Once she released her children from the
co–dependent bonds of enmeshment, she was able to evolve into a new way of
interacting with her children. And in doing so, she found that she could be
more present for her children because she felt more spiritually fulfilled in
her life.
As mentioned earlier, the universal cycles of change influence all the areas
of our lives. The primary life areas that they effect are:
* Romance and Love
* Career
* Health
* Family
* Money Matters
* Friends
* Spirituality
* Your Present State of Mind
When you assess each area of your life, which universal cycle of change are
you experiencing in that context? If any of your areas are in turbulence or
chaos, you may want to ask yourself,
“What are some things that I need to drop off so that I can bring my life
back into balance?”
It doesn’t always have to be a dramatic dropping off. You can drop off
something as simple as reading the morning newspaper or drinking diet coke
every day. Some other examples of things that may need to be dropped off
are: behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, ways of thinking, perceptions, habits,
jobs, and relationships. Other specific examples might include: smoking,
drinking too much alcohol, weight, television, coffee, unclear boundaries,
frenetic busyness, old relationships that need to be updated, a troublesome
employee, a toxic friendship, clutter, disorganization, grudges, anger,
jealousy, unnecessary debt and unfinished business with people.
Here is a more detailed description of the universal cycles of change to
help you identify which cycle you might be in:
Creation—This cycle is about new beginnings. Everything has a starting
point, and typically that point begins with an idea, an action, or a
blueprint. Some examples of this include starting a business, having a baby,
investing in your first stock or fund, creating an idea for a book or a
painting, building your first house, getting married, buying a new car,
planting the seeds for a vegetable garden, or the Big Bang (the beginning of
our universe as we know it).
Growth—When a system begins to grow and develop, it also becomes “self
organizing.” What this means is that the initial creation begins to take
shape or form. New patterns of behavior start to develop, and the system
self–organizes itself around the original creation. For example, a new
business develops a wonderful marketing plan, the tock that you've invested
in begins to rise in price, the small tree that you've planted shows signs
of growth, you install fancy hubcaps and new seat covers in your car, or
your child speaks its first words and takes her first steps.
Complexity to Maturity—As a system begins to take shape and form through
continued growth, it becomes more complex to the point where it reaches a
“steady state.” A system operates at its best when it is in a steady state.
Some examples of a steady state are when things are going exceptionally well
in your job, when an athlete enters into the zone, when the tree that you
have planted is sprouting beautiful green leaves, when your marriage is
going incredibly well, the car that you bought is running great, the stock
that you have invested in has made a big jump in the right direction, or
when you're feeling good about yourself and everything in your life.
Turbulence–Feedback—When the system becomes too complex in its growth and
development, problems begin to develop and turbulence sets is. Turbulence is
considered feedback from the environment that the system's complex state can
no longer be supported—and that something has to be reorganized, changed, or
dropped off. For example, you may have hired someone to work for you and
that person isn't working out, you may start noticing some serious
communication problems in your marriage that are effecting your individual
health and well–being, the leaves on the tree that you planted begin to
change color, you may have invested in a stock and it begins to drop, you
develop a minor physical symptom that is distracting, you notice signs of
depression or dissatisfaction in your life, or your car starts making funny
little sounds.
Chaos—This is when the system completely falls apart and chaos sets in. For
example, the leaves on the tree turn brown and shrivel up, the troublesome
employee acts out to the point where the overall welfare of the business is
threatened, the stock that you bought takes a huge drop, your marriage is
completely falling apart, you get seriously ill, or the funny sound that
your car was making turns into a loud choking sound and grey–blue smoke
starts blowing out the tail pipe.
Droppings Off and Reorganization—Sometimes life becomes so complex that
chaos sets in and you have to drop off something to help the system regain
its overall balance. For example, when the snake sheds its skin or the
leaves drop off the tree—these are considered to be droppings off. Even
having to replace a part on your car is a form of dropping off or a form of
reorganization. In order to move forward through a difficult life challenge
you often need to let go of a limiting belief, a dysfunctional relationship,
change a behavior, or reorganize how you view the world; thus making the
space in your life to create something wonderfully new. All life forms in
this universe such as trees, snakes, and even stars allow for this natural
dropping off cycle to occur; as well as nonliving forms such as computers
with animated trash bins. The purpose of the trash bin is to get rid of
extra information on the hard drive because it takes up too much space.
Human beings are the only ones that resist these natural cycles of change.
Meditation and Dormancy—The way a system regains its balance is to drop
something off. Then it can rejuvenate itself during the dormancy phase, thus
allowing itself to recycle back up to a new evolutionary level of creation.
Just as the tree stands without leaves in the brisk cold winter, we
sometimes need to go into a place of meditation and inner silence. It might
be uncomfortable for a while, but it can be very healing to quiet one's mind
or to lay low for a while. Before you can move forward, you need to give
yourself plenty of being time to renew and rejuvenate. Once you've done
this, you can become creative again. You will have dropped off what was
holding you back. Yet you'll still have all the knowledge and wisdom that
was gained from the whole experience. This sets the tone for a whole new
cycle of creativity and growth.
My husband, Tim, and I have found that it is useful for people to look at
the different areas of their life, and to identify where they are in the
universal cycles of change. For example, there was a woman attending a
WealthyMind™ seminar in Dallas, Texas last November, who took herself
through the universal cycles of change model. In doing so, she discovered
that there were three primary areas in her life that were in total chaos.
These areas included her job, her marriage, and her health. She had been
very unhappy in her marriage for over five years and tried everything
possible to make it work. She and her husband hadn't slept in the same
bedroom for over three years. She had also become extremely unhappy with her
job, and was 40 pounds overweight. She decided that she needed to drop off
her marriage, her job, and the extra 40 pounds of weight that she was
carrying.
This same woman reappeared four months later at our WealthyMindTM Program in
Omaha, Nebraska. She had lost 32 pounds and looked fantastic. I asked her
how her life was going. She said that she had asked her husband for a
divorce and was in the middle of transitioning out of her old job and
starting a new business. She had also dropped off some of her limiting
beliefs around money, which had given her the courage to start a new
business. She admitted that all of these changes had created some chaos in
her life, yet she was happier than she had ever been and was looking forward
to her new adventure.
We certainly don’t recommend dropping off a relationship or a job. This is a
last resort. We always encourage our students and clients to start off by
trying to drop an attitude, a perception, or any behaviors and beliefs that
are related to their overall disharmony. If dropping those things off
doesn’t work, then perhaps they will need to drop off the relationship or
job. Especially if it is highly dysfunctional, toxic, or abusive.
Fortunately, we have NLP as a resource to help people transition through
these universal cycles of change.
In the case of the man who was having problems with his teenage daughter,
it's not like he could just “drop off” the relationship with his child. His
only option was to reorganize who he was within the context of the
relationship. As soon as he stopped treating her like a little girl, and
started treating her like an adult, their relationship got better. The magic
in what he did with his daughter can be found within the structure of his
internal experience. He had an internal representation of her being a little
girl. When he shifted that representation to her being an adult, then she
started acting like an adult. By doing this, he was able to create an
entirely new experience with his daughter.
What happened with the man and his daughter leads me back to the original
question that I posed earlier in this article. “How is our inner reality
directly related to our outer reality, and how do the two affect one
another?”
Our outer reality is a reflection of our inner reality. What nature can do
for us—is to serve as a perfect model for creating the life we want, as well
as evolving to higher levels of personal and spiritual fulfillment. The
answers to creating what we want in life can be found by becoming aware of
the universal cycles of change and applying them to all the various life
areas. There is no reason why we can't harness the same kind of creative
potential that exists within the seed of a plant or a star in our galaxy.
Barbara Walters was interviewing multi–billionaire Bill Gates, and asked
him, “Now that you're the richest man in the world and you can have anything
you desire, what more could you possibly want?”
Gates replied, “To never stop changing. Whatever I do today, will be
considered history tomorrow. I have to make sure that I never stop creating,
and that I am always changing."
Suggested Reading:
A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilber
Complexity by M. Mitchell Waldrop
The Web of Life by Fritjof Capra
The Tree of Knowledge by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela
Chaos: Making A New Science by James Gleick
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