Motivation for October - Know Thyself!
As winter and Christmas begin to draw closer, would it be helpful to be in a calm state of mind before you get there?
KNOW THYSELF!
How many things go on in your head that you don’t even notice? Do you think there may be some subconscious thoughts and reactions that you’re not even keeping tabs on but that wind you up, worry you, de-stabilise you?
For October we’re concentrating on some practical – and simple – techniques to help you feel more calm, confident and motivated, starting with noticing how you might be de-motivating or stressing yourself without even realising it…
THIS MONTH: To bring these techniques alive…on Monday 4th October, I’ll be popping in to BBC Radio Nottingham to demonstrate these techniques live in the studio. Will presenter Frances Finn be a willing volunteer or will it be the production staff? Either way you’ll be able to hear it live or ‘listen again’ and learn some potentially life changing yet easy to pick up tricks and techniques. Listen Live at about 11:30am or Listen Again on the BBC Radio Nottingham website.
So, what are these techniques?
We begin by noticing what’s going on in the background…
WHAT’S GOING ON?
How’s your posture? How you sit or stand makes a difference to how you feel, just try thinking of something sad while looking up, it’s harder to recall it. So imagine how a slumped posture could affect how you feel day to day.
Are your shoulders hunched towards your ears? Is your jaw tight, your teeth clenched?
How are you breathing?
Technique for Relaxing – Take your shoulders right up to your ears, roll them back and down. Loosen your jaw, teeth and tongue and take some long, slow deep breaths as you roll your shoulders up and back. Do this three times, more if you’re hearing the crunching and clicking that comes with tight muscles.
Notice your posture and sit well in your chair. Get up and move around when you need to. Take a break from the screen, the room, the task each hour. If you’re in an enclosed room, try to get to see the sky regularly by going to a window or going outside.
Curious Fact: Research showed hospital patients with a window view of trees got better faster than patients who didn’t see trees.
Why Bother Noticing?
The Movie Technique – Take note of how you’re ‘rehearsing’ the future. When you picture tomorrow or a particular event or meeting, is it pleasant? Is it successful? You’re in charge of that particular movie and the script, choosing it consciously can help you feel energised and motivated instead of nervous and hesitant. So take a little time to check what movie you’ve got playing, is it helpful or scary? Change it to something better by remembering a good time and applying the same feelings to the future.
What did you say?
Changing the Tape Technique – What we tell ourselves has a massive impact not only on how we feel but what we’re capable of. If you concentrate on aiming for the goal, imagining the ball in the back of the net, you’re more likely to score. If you kick the ball while worrying about missing the net, you’re more likely to miss. It’s already old news in sports psychology, it’s time we applied it to everyday situations to make life easier and give ourselves a better chance of achieving what we want to achieve. But often we have a ‘tape’ playing and it’s full of things like ‘I’m no good at that’ ‘I’ll never get it right’ or ‘I’m too stupid’ – not things we’d put up with from other people but our own little ‘chatterbox’ will insult us anytime of day or night! So what would you rather have?
If you employed someone to give you the support you need, what would you like to hear them say?
“You can do it!”
“You are really clever, you’ll find this task easy”
“Don’t worry about last time, this time you’ll get it right”
Repeat it in your own head and get used to being your own coach, after all, you know what you’d like to hear!
The next time you’re lifting something heavy or walking up a steep hill, ‘talk strong’ in your own head; “I can do it, I’m strong” and notice the difference.
Listen live or listen again to the BBC Radio Nottingham broadcast to hear the techniques in action, it all becomes clear…
Updates
Thank you so much to all those of you who took a few minutes to fill in the Feel Good Club Survey, there are some really interesting results!
I’ll be writing up the report over the next week so if you haven’t yet done it, there are still a few days to get your views heard. Click here to give it a go: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SRBLKCN
There are only 10 questions and it’s anonymous. The aim is to find out what gets your goat and what floats your boat, the results will form research into stress reduction techniques and an article for the press.
Remember you can join up to The Feel Good Club Forum to list all your favourite Feel Good things and post questions you have about more ways to Feel Good or sort out problems, here’s the link:
http://www.TheFeelGoodClub.com/forums/
Remember The Feel Good Club website is a free resource that we want to build into something really helpful and fun to use, pass the word around, pass this message on too, let’s spread the Feel Good Factor :o)
With lots of crunchy Autumn love,
Pam
PS Next Month we’re concentrating on strategies for a good nights sleep…zzzzzzzzzzz
Posted by Pam on 6 October, 2010. Comments (0)