A degree of confidence thanks to the power of a clear mind

THIS WEEKEND marked a bit of a milestone for me, I finished the last assignment for the last taught module in my MSc in Psychology. I now only have my thesis to go, the part I have been looking forward to the most.

It’s been a really interesting journey for me, and I confess when I started I had the usual insecurities about whether I could do it, whether I would be good enough, whether I could write academic papers, understand journals or even use statistics. However, I have proved to myself time and time again that you can indeed teach an old dog new tricks.

I think one of the most interesting reflections has been how state of mind has played such an important part of this journey and perhaps one that I hadn’t even considered, although it’s ironic considering it is a psychology course.

When I started over 15 months ago, I had no idea what to expect. I hadn’t been in an academic setting for nearly 20 years and my mind was filled with insecurities. As the first assignment deadline loomed, things became even more interesting. I got sucked into all my old thinking that I had 20 years ago.

If you have followed my story, you will know that I was a professional stress bunny, and it started when I did my law degree – I was so stressed that during my finals I was strapped up to a heart monitor. Anyway, there I was, a lot older, and hopefully wiser, being sucked into how I wasn’t going to get it completed, how I wasn’t good enough, who was I to be even taking it?

After a while of being down that rabbit hole I saw it. I realised what I was doing, I was buying into old thoughts, thoughts I had 20 years ago, they were not thoughts for today. My mind was trying to make sense of this new situation by sending me the ‘best thoughts it had’ to navigate it – but they were hopelessly out of date and unhelpful.

This realisation was enough for me to let those thoughts go and choose some more helpful ones. My mind cleared, I had an idea for that first assignment, it flowed so easily and bagged myself my first merit.

Every time I had an assignment I could see the power of having a clear mind. The quieter my mind was, the easier it was to absorb information, follow instructions, be creative, innovative, and so much more efficient.

I became fascinated with how much more I could achieve. It felt like my mind had an untapped potential that I was now tapping into at a new level.

But sadly I could see in others how when they were innocently lost in their insecure and stressful thinking, how hard the same course was for them. How thought can create unnecessary stress when we time travel into the future, try and assess how well we are doing and how panic can blind us to information that is right in front of us.

It seems such a simple idea, and is so often overlooked, but it is one that has had the most profound impact on me (and my clients) and it’s like the gift that keeps on giving. You think that you’ve seen it all and then you become aware of another aspect of your life where it applies.