Where is my power? Cognitive reframing is what I can do.
During these changing and difficult times many people are having to stay at home without having any opportunity to connect with others outside of their home for example, and, there are growing levels of stress and upset that people are feeling. I’m sure many of you who are reading this are probably feeling that. At times, we may be feeling stuck, afraid, and wondering when we will get our old life back. The reality is that in many ways, we will not get our life back the way it was. Acknowledging this loss, acknowledging our grief is a powerful step.
When we are feeling a sense of loss or overwhelm the key is to ask, what can we do about it? Can we be more capable in the moment of recognizing how we are being triggered? And in that stress reaction, can we learn to manage it more effectively and refocus our attention in a way that makes us feel more empowered? I believe the answer is yes, and I’m going to show you how by introducing you to the tool of cognitive reframing and then how this tool is made even more powerful once we anchor it with hypnosis. As we go through this grieving process and the added stress and uncertainty in our life, it serves us to engage some mental health strategies and I will be introducing you to a number of tools in my weekly blogs and videos to support you.
We can learn how to be aware and change our process of thought and take an action that brings our stress levels down so that we can have a growing sense of self control. This idea of cognitive reframing is that when we have thoughts or ideas that come into our mind that are irrational, exaggerated or damaging, that we then ask the question: where is my power? Our power is first, in our awareness. And, what can we do when that happens? We can STOP the exaggerated or distorted thoughts. And the reason we choose to do this is because being stuck in old patterns is never going to change anything. This is the process of introducing new patterns of thought, action and behavior. In cognitive reframing we ask ourselves what is the truth and what would empower me in this moment? What are the right feelings or thoughts to focus on, depending upon the issue that has come up in the moment.
When we reframe, we put a new frame on that picture, which is, yes I can or I’m going to use this tool and change the way I feel in my body, or meditate or use a tool like self-hypnosis. This allows us to move out of being stuck in old patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors and be aware that they are not serving us. We can now put the new frame on them in terms of what we recognize is in our best interest. Then, we can reinforce what we want, this is the idea of cognitive reframing.
That reframing will take you a long way towards change, but when we can bring in this other idea of now taking what we recognize would work for us- and connect that into the subconscious; now you’ve taken it to a whole new level of change. Instead of focusing only in conscious thought- now we are working to reprogram the old programming that was there in the subconscious. And though that programming may have served us at some point in our life, it doesn’t now. So this is how we take those old learned associations that have been driving the old ways of thinking and being stuck and we retrain or relearn new associations that do work.
An example of what I’m talking about would be someone who has set unreasonable expectations on their schedule or routine or in their ability to be productive, especially in this time of great upheaval and uncertainty and change. Or, maybe, we set unreasonable expectations about what we can do, based on what is within our control and what is not. And, what we often see is, the ways in which people get caught up in patterns of thinking and, in expectations and how you can see if you just look for a moment and recognize the distortion; it’s that awareness we need to build and then we ask, what is the truth? What works? So, in these moments when we can become aware of upset or anxiety-or fear or frustration, we need to ask ourselves, is this reasonable?
In my own practice, in working with my clients, I have experienced many examples of people being stuck in old patterns of thought and emotion, resulting in physical, mental and emotional upset and discomfort. I often ask them to think of hypnosis as a learning tool for our subconscious, a tool that enables us to change reactions; old patterns in our thinking or feeling that do not serve us. Now we can see where we can be empowered instead of constantly feeling disempowered. As we bring this tool into our life and apply it, we realize we are making the best out of difficult circumstances by focusing on creating control over our responses and by letting go of other things that we do not have control over. So, as we find ourselves in this time of disruption and uncertainty– why not see it as an opportunity to ask ourselves, “what can I do right now, so that one month from now, I will have gained in some way?” Why not start by learning to be aware, by learning to stop and reframe our thoughts, and stop the old ways of thinking and reframe them into a more positive and empowered truth.
Stay connected with me and tune in for my future tutorials where I show you how to engage a breathing tool that can trigger a healing immune response, as well as some strategies designed for artists and those of you who work in the creative industries as I show you how to manage and retrain your subconscious mind and set yourself free.
