mindfulness

Redirecting Our Mindset: Breaking Free from the Grip of Negative Thinking

/ Debbie Frakes / Leave a comment

“If you hold an anti-war rally, I shall not attend. But if you hold a Pro-Peace rally invite me.”

That is perhaps one of Mother Teresa’s most famous quotes. And it has always stuck with me – that she persistently focused on what she was for: Love and peace. Not what she was against: Hatred and fighting.

Of the 60,000 or so thoughts most of us have in a given day, it’s likely that a good percentage focus on what we’re against. This political party or that one. This issue or that one. This network or that one. This person or that one.  What irritates us, what we hate. And all of this negative thinking gets us into a full-fledged state of anxiety and dis-ease that hangs around like Pigpen’s dust cloud.

If you’re tired of going through your days like this, it’s entirely possibly to change this pattern. And good news! That’s what it is: A pattern we’re running — like a rogue bit of software we’ve programmed into ourselves over years of thinking the same thoughts.

Not saying changing it is easy. If we’ve been thinking negative thoughts for a long time, they’ve figuratively created grooves in our neural networks. Ever tried to ski a cross-country trail and NOT slide into the already laid tracks that have been gone over hundreds of times? Pretty hard to do.

But even if 59,999 of our daily thoughts are negative, we’re not doomed to live our lives this way. Our brains are what neuroscientists call “plastic,” which means they can grow new neurons and neural connections – no matter how old we are.

So how do we do it? Here are some tools to consider:

  • Catch: We can start to be more aware of what’s churning around in our head and notice when we’re hating on something (and maybe even what triggered it).
  • Accept: No need to judge yourself. You wouldn’t condemn your computer for running the software it was programmed with, would you?
  • Replace: Neuroscientists and psychologists are finding that it’s difficult to just erase a thought or stop a behavior without replacing it with something else. So, for example, every time you see a person on TV that makes your blood simmer, you think of someone that you love. Your hubby. Or wife. Mom. Dad. Puppy. You see Hated Face, you think of mom. See Hated Face, think of mom. So you learn to internally pair the two to the point where seeing Hated Face triggers seeing Loved Face.

If you’re bothered by your negative thoughts and want some relief, the invitation is open to giving these steps a try. And let us know how they work.

Unloading That Extra Weight: Tools to Release, Heal and Thrive

/ Debbie Frakes / Leave a comment

So many of us have a weight problem.

But it’s not a number-on-the-scale problem.

Or a clothes-too-tight problem.

It’s the emotional weight we lug around like a bag full of rocks. Disappointments. Resentments. Regrets. Shame.

These negative emotions – these rocks – serve no helpful purpose. None.

They make our lives heavy. Hold us back.

The rational and commonsense solution is to “just let it go.”

But remember, this emotional weight is more akin to a boulder, not a balloon. You can’t just grab one, open your hand, and it floats away. If it were that easy, we wouldn’t be schlepping them around in the first place. We’d be flinging rocks away like a flower girl scattering rose petals at a wedding.

Plus, “rational and commonsense” is not the language used by the part of us that’s carrying around this trauma.

So how do we release them?

1. Start Small:

    Which of the rocks should we get rid of first? Most of us would probably vote for the big ones of course – the ones we’ve dragged around the longest time. But in this case, it might be easier to start with the pebbles. Maybe a negative thought. Or an irritation with a rude driver. Try to let breathe and let those go.

    It’s like deciding to work out. You wouldn’t walk into a gym and immediately try to bench press 200 pounds. You’d start with 50. Or 20. Or 5. Or whatever you could handle. And work up from there.

    Eventually, you’ve got some strength and tools for disposing of the big rocks.

    2. Let them:

    This one might be a bit tough, depending on those face is impaled upon which rock.

    Author and podcaster Mel Robbins recently published a best seller, “The Let Them Theory”, which she describes as “a simple mindset tool that has two parts. The first part is telling yourself to, ‘Let them,’ during any moment in life where you feel annoyed, frustrated, stressed out, or worried about a situation or another person. As soon as you say those two words, you are releasing control of what another person thinks, says, does, believes, and feels.

    “Any psychologist will tell you that whenever you try to control something that you can’t, it just creates more stress and frustration and anxiety for you….

    “Once you say, ‘Let them,’ you recognize you can’t control what another person thinks, says, or does. Therefore, it is not worth your time and energy to try. Then you say, ‘Let me,’ reminding yourself of the things that are in your control: what you think about another person or situation, what you do or don’t do in response to another person or situation, and what you do in response to your emotions.” A good Q&A with Mel on her book is here: https://www.wondermind.com/article/let-them-theory/

    3. Share them:

    A beautiful thing happens when you pick up the phone (yes, dial and talk live) to a friend or family member about whatever rock is weighing you down most. I just did that this morning. And even as I started talking, I could feel that weight lift, and I felt lighter, almost buoyant by the end of the conversation.

    4. Write about them:

    I just learned about something called the Pennebaker Protocol (sounds like a Robert Ludlum novel, right?) created by James W. Pennebaker, a renowned social psychologist and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Here are the steps:

    1. Pick a topic you worry about – something you worry or ruminate about, or avoid thinking about because it’s too overwhelming.
    2. Write about it for 15 minutes – set a timer, focus on your thoughts and emotions, and free flow – no grammar, spelling or style checking.
    3. Repeat on four consecutive days – chances are new insights will surface

    Sounds suspiciously simple, but there have now been over 2,000 studies on the benefits of expressive writing and the results are clear: It not only provides an outlet to vent pent-up emotions, but it also reduces the cognitive burden of rumination and intrusive thoughts (which frees up our working memory to deal with more constructive tasks), and it allows psychological closure, among other things.

    I hope some of these tools help with whatever rocks you might be carrying. Drop a comment below and tell us what worked the best for you.

    What Can We Do in This “Age of Rage?”

    / Debbie Frakes / 2 Comments

    “We are living in an age of rage” proclaims a sign in front of a church by our house.

    I imagine people driving by this sign and nodding in vehement agreement — especially if their primary inputs on the world come from social media, prime time TV and cable news.

    But while those inputs (and their pundits) are pervasive and loud, they don’t give us a true picture of the way things actually are. Because for every dark headline, there are a thousand points of light.

    So, what if instead of focusing on our “age of rage,” we all focused on how to “assuage the rage?”

    There was a great example of this recently: During the post-game brawl between the University of Michigan and Ohio State football players (and fans), one Michigan and three Ohio State players knelt on the field to pray.

    There’s four points of light. Five, if you count the man who videoed the scene and posted it on X.

    It reminds me of the “butterfly effect” – the analogy that a butterfly flapping its wings in Australia could cause a tornado in Kansas.

    That analogy means ONE action could make a difference. Like choosing prayer over fighting. Not watching the news, refraining from the urge to spank someone on social media, biting back a sharp retort.

    While these individual actions may not appear to impact the state of the world, they will impact the state of us.

    How can you help assuage the rage today?

    The Five Stages of Resistance

    / Debbie Frakes / 1 Comment

    What we resist, persists.

    That quote, often attributed to personal growth guru Tony Robbins, is an inconvenient and irritating truth.

    Inconvenient and irritating because when you’re in the midst of a strong emotion or thought pattern (usually brought on by our reaction to things we can’t control) the last thing you want to hear is just another version of “go with the flow.”

    Say you’ve just learned your job is going away, or you’ve just moved your only child to college for the first time. Or, there’s a coworker who has a surgical and sneaky way of getting underneath your skin. Or you have to go to a cocktail party and your introverted self – to whom the thought of minor surgery without anesthesia is more appealing than spending two hours making small talk – is screaming “No, I will NOT do it!”

    But what if this reaction is perfectly fine?

    Not that we can stay in the “ABSOLUTELY NOT” mindset permanently, though, because very often despite our best efforts to control everything around us, situations change, people change, our world changes. And we don’t get a vote.

    As someone who deals with anxiety, I’ve started seeing a pattern of stages we go through when faced with situations like this. Because you can’t simply go from “I will not” and “Make it go away” to a Zen-like dreamy, “whatever” in two seconds. If you can, you’re a unicorn, and you should write a book.

    Here are what I’ve defined as the 5 Stages of Resistance:

    1. Rejecting: We first find out about something that causes major mental and emotional upheaval, and the first thing we do is say, no, I won’t, I can’t, it’s not happening.
    2. Resenting: It’s becoming clear that the “thing” we said isn’t happening, is, in fact, happening, and we’re pissed. Why should this happen to us? It’s not right. This is where we get a little or a lot peeved at the event or person(s) behind the thing. There’s a whole lot of stewing going on in this stage.
    3. Releasing: Around this point, when it’s clear that our best efforts won’t stop the “thing”, we start to let go a bit. And as we release, we allow some new thoughts to form. This is happening anyways, so how can I get through it?
    4. Relaxing: More releasing, more opening, more ideas on how to find good in the situation, maybe even tools on how to deal with your inner angst.
    5. Receiving: The highest level we can get to. Our mindset changes from complete closure to expansive opening. What good can I receive? Maybe I’ll meet someone interesting at that cocktail party. Maybe when Joey goes off to college, I’ll finally sign up for yoga teacher training. Maybe just letting go of my coworker’s behavior gives me peace, and that’s enough?

    It’s okay to be in any of the stages, and always remember to give ourselves grace no matter where we are. But it’s the last stage that truly frees us if we can get there.