Are you having a difficult time getting into the swing of things after facing a layoff? If you are one of the thousands of people who has suddenly found yourself without a job, there has never been a better time than now to head back to college. Even President Obama has challenged every American to head back to school and to pursue one more year of education. But, if you are having a difficult time finding a new path to pursue, a recent article in the Metro may help you to understand why.

In the article, Heidi Patalano offers some interesting quotes and advice from M.J. Ryan, who is a life change expert who has authored numerous books on the subject. According to Ryan, our brains try to conserve as much energy as possible. As such, the brain is a fan of habit and actually creates pathways to help make our habits easier to follow.

“What the brain does to be a good citizen of the body is to conserve as much energy as possible by creating habits,” Ryan says in the article. “You don’t have to think about driving your car anymore, right? So, we have these deeply grooved pathways in our brains to doing the things that we’ve already done because the brain cells that fire together, wire together.”

So, what does this have to do with heading back to school or finding a new job? Simple. Since your brain prefers to stick with habits, making changes is difficult. As Ryan explains in the article “Your brain says, ‘That’s so much more work to have to do something different.’ And the part of the brain that’s in charge of the stress response is always scanning the environment for two things: Is this safe or dangerous; is it painful or pleasureable?”

Since most people’s brains experience a bit of a painful shock to the system after being laid off, it is only natural for the brain to become paralyzed in a matter of speaking. As a result, it makes it difficult for the brain to get creative about deciding on the next career move.

“If that fear reaction is strong,” Ryan explains in the article, ” we lose capacity to think rationally, so we don’t make good decisions.”

By understanding the underlying biological reasons for your inability to make a decision regarding your next career move, however, you are taking the first step toward making the change you need to make.

“That is why I say change is not the enemy; fear is,” Ryan continued in the article. “That is why we have to learn to relate to change, so that we’ll be able to think as creatively about our choices as possible.”

If you are finally ready to take control and to make the change you need to make, visit the Top Colleges home page to learn more about possible career paths and online colleges where you can get started.