...PING!
Do you spend a lot of time worrying about what might happen, or ruminating over what has already happened? Does concern for what is going on in the world take up space in your conscious thought? Are you the type of person who has to be totally clear in their mind about what to do before you take any action?
All of this effort trying to get the right outcome could be wasted time and energy.
Through my journey into the world of the unconscious mind, and my study of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) it has been reenforced to me that what we focus on is what we get. Look for the negative, get a negative outcome. Look for the positive, get a positive outcome.
Worrying about something, is more likely to make that thing happen. Confirmation bias is working its magic, and the voice that wants to say “I told you so”, will inevitably chime in. And if it doesn't happen, then you've wasted time worrying about!
Imagine being able to envision a positive outcome of any situation you may face, instead of fretting about what might happen, be excited about the possibilities of what could happen.
Our minds are incredibly powerful, the function of the brain, or mind, is to keep us alive. Instructing the rest of our body what to do, and how to be. It's programmed to protect us from dangers that mostly don’t exist anymore, but it still jumps in to keep us out of harms way. Our environments have changed but our internal ecosystem still operations from an out-of-date structure.
When we consider everything we spend time and effort on, in reality most of those things are not a life and death type of threat. Now clearly, if your life does depend on an action you need to take, then listen. But first ask yourself, why does this matter so much? Then ask, what does matter? What do I want from this situation? Then you can start to focus on that, rather than what you don’t want.
This is an exercise in reframing, one of my favorite things to do.
Is your glass half empty? Mine is always half full, or if there’s wine in it, room for more!
Instead of thinking:
I don't know what to do, what if I fail?
I can’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, there are too many barriers in my way.
This job is killing me, I will never be happy here.
There are so many things going wrong, why me?
The world is a scary place, I get depressed reading the news.
Try thinking:
This is new to me, what can I learn?
What’s the lesson I am learning from this, how will I be stronger because of it?
What is this job telling me about myself and what do I need to change?
What do I want to see, how can I use the journey to propel me forward?
How can I have a more positive impact on the world around me, where can I be inspired?
When we put all of our attention to the negative parts of our lives and the challenges we face each and every day, our brains work in overtime to protect us, giving us a heighten sense of awareness, looking out for danger. It’s exhausting.
By putting our attention on a reframed positive aspect of the situation, we can shift our energy to finding solutions, reflection and growth, which never happens when we are in survival state. We can work in a state of curiosity instead of caution.
Where would you rather spend your precious time and effort? I want all my energy to be helping me move forward rather than looking back and building defenses for a future which may never happen.
Where do you spend your energy? How could you reframe a situation so you can pay attention to what will help you rather than staying stuck in fear and anxiety? Let me know.
Thanks for reading, I hope this has given you some things to think about and you have some of your own Lightbulb Moments.
I'd love to hear about them.
If you would like some help experiencing them, I'd love to help.
Please share this with anyone you know who loves experiencing Lightbulb Moments.
Enjoy the Ping!
Viki Johnston
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