How to Coach Yourself and Others Essential Knowledge For Coaching | Page 483
down. Suddenly looking up (into our visual plane) will interrupt the
negative patterns of sinking into the quick sand of bad feelings.
Any sudden physical change will do the trick:
Stand up and stretch while letting out an audible sigh.
Exaggerate and change your facial expressions.
Walk over to a window where there is sunlight.
Do 10 jumping jacks.
Do a ridiculous dance that pokes fun at you.
Massage the back of your neck with one hand while singing happy
birthday.
Try this next time you feel a negative or unpleasant thought come up.
2. “What Do You Want?”
Sit down and write down exactly what it is that you want out of the
current situation. Your job is to describe the end result you would like
to see. Be clear, realistic and fair. Be specific with your description.
Including dates of when you would like to see the results.
Once you have this clearly mapped out, and when you find yourself
drifting into negative thoughts of what you don’t want, you can shift
your focus on this list instead.
Also, when we do this exercise consciously, we’ll come to find that the
arbitrary and materialistic things that we thought we wanted, aren’t
want we want, after all. Clarity is a beautiful thing.
3. Eliminate: Don’t, Not, No
Words such as Don’t, Not, No, Can’t gets us focused on the things that
we don’t want. Language is a powerful thing and can influence our
subconscious mind, and ultimately our feelings. When you catch
yourself using a negated word, see if you can replace it with another
word of opposing meaning. Example: instead of saying “I don’t want
war”, say “I want peace”.
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