Imagine, for months, you have been waking up every day with a persistent, dull ache in your left hip. As a sales representative, you’re on your feet for hours, constantly moving and helping customers. The pain becomes a background hum, a constant companion you’ve learned to ignore. But over time, it worsens, creeping into every aspect of your life. You stretch, ice, and try to push through the discomfort, but nothing seems to work.
Then one day, you decide to look deeper. You realize that you’ve been leaning more heavily on your left side—a small, unconscious habit that formed while attending to customers for many hours on end. With this new awareness, you start to experiment. You shift your weight, adjust your stance, and find ways to distribute the effort more equally between both legs, paying close attention to the needs of each individual leg.
You commit to these small changes, practicing them daily as much as you can remember. A few weeks later, the pain is gone.
Some readers might think, ‘Well, of course,’ or ‘Anyone would have thought of that.’ However, every day, we see people facing similar, albeit more complex problems. As we discuss in our blog ‘The Body as a Rule-Making Machine,’ these individuals unknowingly create habits that not only fail to help but often worsen their situations. The body, in its effort to adapt, can obscure these unhelpful patterns, making them difficult to recognize without conscious effort. This straightforward yet profound transformation was possible because you consciously, or unconsciously, embraced the principles of change, personalized it to fit your life, and kept the strategies that worked for you.
These simple, seemingly obvious, but often ignored principles are key components of the science of change, or evolutionary science.
At IOCH, we believe in the power of evolutionary science to transform lives. This isn’t about grand debates on human evolution; it’s about understanding how small changes can create significant impacts in our daily lives. We focus on three main principles: Variation (creating change), Selection (finding what works best for you), and Retention (keeping what works). These principles are influenced by your unique context—your personal circumstances, environment, and history—and can help you navigate life’s challenges more effectively.
The Three Principles of Evolution
Consider another example: You’ve been struggling with a deteriorating relationship with your boss, which has been negatively impacting your health and family life. Variation comes into play when you open yourself to the possibility of change and begin exploring new job opportunities. This exploration represents trying out different paths and ideas to see what could work better for you. Next, Selection occurs when you evaluate these options and choose a new role that better suits your needs and those of your family. This is the process of identifying the best fit based on your personal circumstances and what you’ve learned from the options available. Finally, Retention is reflected in your commitment to this new role, which leads to improved well-being and a happier home life. By sticking with the choice that works, you retain the benefits and continue to build on them, reinforcing the positive change in your life.
As we’ve seen, the principles of evolutionary science—variation, selection, and retention—are not just abstract concepts but practical tools that can guide us through life’s challenges, offering pathways to meaningful change. Whether it’s alleviating a persistent ache or making a life-altering decision, these principles provide a framework for personal transformation. But how do these small, seemingly simple steps translate into broader, more complex changes in our lives? In Part 2, we’ll delve deeper into how these principles can be applied to more intricate situations, exploring how embracing change on a larger scale can lead to profound improvements in our well-being and resilience.
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In Part 1, we explored how the principles of evolutionary science—variation, selection, and retention—can drive personal transformation through small, meaningful changes. Now, let’s expand on that foundation by examining how these principles can be applied to more complex scenarios, where the stakes are higher, and the changes required are more…
The Institute of Contextual Health (IOCH) is a 501(c)(3) science and technology research and development organization. IOCH envisions a world where personalized, scientific care transcends traditional healthcare boundaries, driven by innovation, equity, and compassion. We aim to transform health and well-being, setting new benchmarks in personalized care and ensuring accessible, world-class services for all.
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