As we move into 2021, we may be confronted with a reality that nothing changed. An arbitrary moment in time to give us repose from the accelerated experience of holidays, family, friends, and travel. Or rather, continued isolation and political unrest.
Too often we may fall into the next day, a snowball accumulating momentum from our past.
Mentally conditioned to be aroused and attentive to negatively oriented media. Our minds are inclined to interpret the previous snowball as rolling downhill. An accumulation of stress begins to overwhelm us. These feelings will beget negative habits and behaviors in an attempt to offset the dis-ease by stimulating comfort or pleasure. Processed foods, sugar, pre-workout, deficient calories, stimulants, fat burners, alcohol, drugs, sex, and exercise. Contributing to the vicious downward spiral of stress. These unchallenged behaviors will ultimately lead us away from our goals and toward illness.
However, there is a mirrored feeling, one which accumulates positive feelings to move us toward desired outcomes. Each day as one small step is made in a positive direction we become energized by our progression over time. If we are not knocked off our course beyond reconciliable correction, we may just make it to our end goal
For the linear-minded, the best way to make decisions about these choices is to experience in order to gain perspective. Make pros and cons list each day of the events that occur and see how you feel about them. Perceived good and bad. Tally up the amount of -/+ and plot each day with the appropriate value.
On the X-axis or horizontal line make each mark represent a day. On the Y-axis or vertical line, make positive marks going above the x-axis, and negative going below the line. Each mark is a value of 1. Example: 8 positive feeling experiences, but 11 negatives. Therefore -3 would be plotted on day one. Day Two saw 9 positive feeling experiences, with 3 negatives, resulting in +6. Continue to plot out each day with how the day's events had gone. In a matter of weeks, you will begin to express your overall outlook.
Check out Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman
As you begin to see the feelings you have over the course of time, now ask yourself if there is a pattern. What brings the positive, what brings the negative? In my 13+ year career, I have seen all kinds of patterns, and unfortunately, if we are honest with ourselves, there are more negative feelings than we are willing to admit. THAT IS OK! Take a breath, this too shall pass. Now we are aware. As long as we are UNAWARE we are UNABLE to change.
Awareness allows change!
It is common for people to see their environment and want to say, “oh, the negative feeling comes from my job, I need to find another job”. Sometimes it’s “my boss is a jerk”. These feelings may be accurate. I am not here to say how you feel about your environment is accurate or not. What I am wanting to share is how we are being triggered about it may cause us negative feelings and ill health. Very often these feelings stem from our past, not related to our current boss or work environment. Instead, they are only triggering us to have a positive or negative experience. One time I cleared a person on relationships and the next day they met their spouse. Each of them had been at the same gym for years, the trigger had inhibited them from actually seeing one another. How often are you missing out on opportunities due to your previous stressful events?
We have all met someone and instantly we recognize we do or do not like them. That is because our unconscious memory pulled up a correlated feeling to go along with their mustache, purple hair, or brown shirt.
What if there was a way to reduce your triggers in a fast, efficient, and cost-effective way? Would you be interested?
