With twenty minutes to go until the next counseling session, I’m sitting on a blue and white accent chair with my left leg crossed over my right, and I’m chuckling about a phone call that’s just ended.
“I found the perfect therapist, but it’s too far of a drive and they don’t accept my insurance.” Great, I think, listening to this new-to-me client’s unfiltered thoughts, second-best will have to do then.
Sometimes you gotta just roll with things, and not take them personally and hopefully get a laugh out of your husband and your blog readers along the way.
Anyway, there’s one major takeaway from today’s sessions; the amount of time and energy people spend focusing on their mistakes, problems, setbacks, and shortcomings.
That’s a lot work, right?
Well, I think the reason for this is people erroneously believe that by honing in on things in this way, and by diagnosing, dissecting, picking at, googling, and talking about the problem until they’re blue in the face is that they believe that this in and of itself will fix it.
But it’s doesn’t, and instead, people come to me because they’re stuck in that way of thinking.
So, first off, let’s stop doing so much off of then. Next, let’s give our brains a better direction.
We do this by thinking in new, creative, and innovative ways. We are mindful of the questions we ask ourselves, and conceptualize our problems more clearly, as well as consider alternative ideas and solutions than what we’ve tried before. (Note to self: write an article expanding on each of these areas.)
Brain hack time: No matter how small or incremental the progress you make, celebrate it! Even if it’s something simple like going up the stairs one more time or finishing the email you don’t want to, or stopping yourself from taking a third bite of chocolate (I did this last night!)
Remember, our brains respond well to rewards.
On the topic of rewards; this blog. I’d like to give a shout-out to myself for making writing a priority, and for facing my fears and insecurities and pushing past them. I gotta say I’m pretty proud of myself.
Anyway, it’s my weekend time! Yee-haw (oops, my country roots just broke through.) I’m looking forward to reading more from the book, “Detective in the Dooryard.” It’s by a cop in Maine that’s infamous for posting long-winded, humorous, and interesting posts from the Bangor Police Department’s Facebook page. If you want easy-to-read, and light stuff, go ahead and check it out.
Alright, that’s another one in the books. Glad you were here.
Love,
Jaclynn
Going On 40 