I’m bothered about finding the way to fight off negative feelings
WITH THE Christmas decorations down at the weekend it’s all looking a little bare now in the Morrison household and I have to say Christmas seems a distant memory as I am back now at my desk – although I’m really fortunate that my ‘‘work’’ never really seems like work as I enjoy it so much.
I do love to have time off as it gives me an opportunity to reflect and recharge, I find that when I’m in this space, often I come up with my best ideas for my business and have that sense of clarity that when I’m busy is easy to lose. I suspect that is why for most of us the New Year is always a good time to set those good intentions for the future, as most of us have had time off to reflect on the past year and what we might want to achieve in the months to come.
However, holding on to that feeling can be tricky. I confess, to sometimes getting a little frustrated with how some days I can feel so motivated, connected, fired up full of energy as though I can conquer the world, yet other days I can hardly be motivated to make a cup of tea. I am confident that this is a struggle that we all face – however, it does make keeping to those good intentions tricky as on those days when we don’t feel like it, how do we keep about, gives me the confidence if you like to look at those ‘‘can’t be bothered’’ thoughts in a completely different light. It’s like really knowing that the sky is blue and a thought pops into your head that the sky is pink – well it would make no sense to believe it would it?
Secondly, I call it the 20minute experiment. If you have a thought that tells you that ‘‘you can’t be bothered’’ or ‘‘you don’t feel like it’’ or ‘‘maybe it won’t work, I was being a bit optimistic’’ or whatever it is that is getting in your way, be curious about how true that is for 20 minutes. You know that you set whatever it was you want to do at a time when you felt grounded and confident that you could do it, you wanted to do it, but the thought that you are having in this moment that is telling you something different can be quite compelling – so give yourself 20 minutes to go do it anyway and see if at the end of the 20 minutes you still feel the same.
If at the end of the 20 minutes you still feel the same, then maybe today isn’t the day you will do it, but I usually find that after 20 minutes, I’ve really got into what it was I wanted to do, and the rubbishy thought that was getting in the way has long since packed its bags and gone.