How often do unresourceful thoughts and negative emotions impact your life?
You know, that negative self talk that goes on and on in your head, because you choose to believe someone did or said something to upset you, or because you thought they didn’t like you in some way?
It is amazing how quickly we can jump to conclusions about how we see the situation and how many times that same thought will go through our head during the day. This can cause our emotional state to flatten and can make us feel angry, upset or hurt.
I have to admit one of the most valuable things I have learned in my professional journey is the ability to change our emotional state at any given time, by choice. This in itself is so empowering, we can do a complete 360 in how we feel and behave just by practicing this one strategy.
It is important to realize that we choose how we respond to any situation. It is not the situation or event that caused us to feel angry or upset it is the meaning that we attach to that event.
For example; you are at a function alone and no-one is attempting to talk to you. You could quite easily attach the meaning to this that you don’t belong or that you’re not good enough or people think you look boring and then you start to lose your self confidence and just leave early feeling flat.
You could decide instead that the other people who are not talking to anyone are feeling very shy and intimidated and are waiting for someone to approach them. You could be the bright shiny light that takes a chance and talks to someone, making a new friend, and you both end up having the best night ever!
The choice is yours and it is only you that decides what something means to you. By changing the way we view things, we can change our emotional state and therefore change the outcome of the situation.
Always remember, the emotion we experience in any situation is caused by the meaning that we give it and,
Absolutely nothing has meaning except the meaning we give it!