changing your heart

Metanoia is a transformative change of heart.  The term suggests repudiation, change of mind, repentance, conversion and atonement.
~ Wikipedia

There's an AA riddle that asks: If there are three frogs on a log and two decide to jump, how many are left on the log?  The answer of course is three, because they only decided. (They never jumped).

A lot of people I know, including myself, get trapped in self-destructive habits. They know what to do but don't do it.  They don't even feel like doing it, let alone take that leap of faith.

In order to break the cycle of passivity, action is clearly required. But where do you get the courage?  How do you go from head to heart? 

They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but I think it's through his feet.

In Seligman's experiments on learned helplessness, a group of dogs was yoked to another group learning how to avoid electrical shocks.  The yoked group received shocks apparently randomly.  When they were later put on an electrified grid, these dogs acted as if they had no legs and collapsed whining on the floor.  Like the frogs on the log, they didn't even try to jump over the small wall separating them from freedom.

But when the experimenters picked them up and started moving their legs and showed them how to get out, the dogs had a change of heart.  They started taking the initiative, and soon jumped over the wall by themselves.

By literally going through the motions, the dogs regained their sense of agency and escaped the self-imposed prison of helplessness. 

We can do the same.

There is a present tense in English called the present progressive.  It sort of conveys the spirit of a change of heart.  It is conjugated with the verb "to be".  It isn't finished yet. But it has started.  On my tiptoes beyond just deciding, involving my whole being and really going through the motions, I am jumping...