Changing Minds
I’m considered to be quite stubborn, whereas I prefer to think that I am determined… Two words that mean relatively the same thing, yet they have a different connotation or feel to them.
Stubborn implies that I obstinately refuse to move even though others want me to change or do things differently, where determined seems to have a more admirable feel to it, such as I have found something inside myself and pushed forward and kept on going, even in the face of difficulty or hardship.
What I tell myself and listen to in my own head is equally important, because it affects how I feel about myself, and impacts on my actions and that impacts on my behaviours and goals.
If I use phrases that are emotionally loaded, for example, “I feel like I’m lost in a big black hole” or, “I feel like I’m drowning I’m so overwhelmed”, those phrases might contribute to feelings of being down or having a black mood, or of being swamped or anxious.
Why does that happen? My sub-conscious mind responds to words by creating mental images and then reacts to trigger an emotional response, and those emotions can have an impact on me.
On the other hand, if I change my thoughts to “Thank goodness I have supports, soon, I’ll see the light” or, “I’m keeping my head above water, I can keep going”, I find that my mood begins to lift because a different image was visualised. Now I’m wondering what your experience has been like?
To change my mind and keep the change, has taken perseverance, determination and staying consciously aware of thoughts (cognitive therapy), and automatic patterns of behaviour, and I’ve also used hypnosis, Timeline techniques and NLP with great success to reduce stress and anxiety.
NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming has a multitude of effective techniques that I have used on myself, to have different and positive thoughts and images spring into mind, instead of those old negatives.
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