Who comes to mind when I suggest, ‘Think of the most negative person you know?’ Who came quickly? Maybe it’s even you. Most negative people don’t consider themselves to be negative. They’ll say they’re “realistic” and what they share is what doesn’t work, which restaurants aren’t good, why they can’t, what they don’t like, and why you shouldn’t…
Our brains are naturally hardwired for the negative. To survive, early humans needed to be en-garde, wary of surroundings, attuned to potential disaster in order to select fight or flight in a heartbeat. So early awareness of impending problems gave humans power to choose a direction instead of simply being overrun.
Today this primal tendency to focus on the negative no longer serves us in the same way. Many still focus on that first negative they see, as if it were their only option. They lazily accept the first hazard sign as a red light.
Contrary to this, successful people see the same sign as yellow, the gift of a caution, which encourages, “Slow down, Explore options. Choose your best one.” They think, “It’s great that I saw that possibility. What else is there? Which likely has my best benefit?”
Consider: If you have 12 good, 6 neutral and 1 really, lousy experience in your day, which of these will you replay most, and which
accompanies you as you go to sleep? How you fall asleep can help how to shift from can’t to can.
When you sleep and dream, your brain will echo that last thought. When negative and stressful neural pathways are reinforced, negative attitudes are bolstered, and negative choices follow. We, like athletes practicing, get better at those things we repeat. We become what we think and it’s obvious that we act on those reinforced behaviors.
6 ideas together you past your own stinkin’ thinkin’
1) Take moments throughout the day to note what draws your attention. This is the practiced application of Mindfulness.
Ask yourself “How does it make me feel? Does it inspire or serve me? Is it worth my time? Does this stop me, or encourage me to what I CAN Do?”
The FIX
If it’s encouraging: celebrate your awareness and continue.
If it’s a barricade: celebrate your awareness of the barricade, stop a second to consciously change to what you want instead
2) To establish and/or reinforce what you want.
Slowing yourself to be “mindful,” in short doses, reinforces short and long term memory. It creates peace and appreciation. It acts as a stress reliever. Our best decisions and best performance usually occur when we are relaxed and focused. How to shift from can’t to can has a lot to do with being mindful.
Focus your senses for 20-30 seconds on a photo, a flower, a classic car, a great taste, an interesting smell, the feel of quality fabric, etc. Then spend a few seconds imagining how you would be doing your next task at peak performance.
3) Use patterned induction to sleep. Don’t just go to sleep. Take the time to use a sleep process or ritual, like an hypnosis induction. Train your mind to respond with consistency to suggestions you enjoy for falling asleep. These could be focusing on your slow breathing, imagining a perfect place and exploring it with all your senses, or listening to an audio or sound. This will insure a better sleep cycle. Another benefit is that the immune system, which flushes toxins, works when you’re asleep. Add to that, the fact that during REM sleep your endocrine system is resetting the neurotransmitters that create your moods during the day. The better you sleep, the better all systems function. Choose and act for health.
4) Use Imagery or visualization. After you’ve set yourself up for sleep, picture or imagine your health perfect. See yourself taking the positive steps to improving health. See perfect relationships in your business and family that will set automatic, positive actions in motion. In REM sleep, these positive words, pictures and feelings replay themselves to impact surrounding brain cells and form strong, neural pathways. This allows Mindsets to shift more easily.
5) Before important activities, Take deep breaths in and out slowly through your nose to initiate a vibration in the back of your breathing passageway where your breath touches the skull. On the other side of that portion of skull is your neo-cortex which performs critical-thinking processes. Creating activity in those brain cells will improve performance. Using this prior to sales presentations, golfing, sex, test taking,studying can only serve to relax and focus your intention. Where could you use a boost? Start now.
6) Throughout the day Act ‘As If’ you were already doing things the way you want, making choices the way you ideally want, and succeeding the way you want. Instead of waiting to see the change you envision, be that change, because the power of intention is real.
Lifestyle changes can happen for those kickin’ and screamin’ enrolled in the School of Hard Knocks, or more easily by making comfortable adjustments in mindset. Which would you prefer for your kids? Which do you prefer for yourself?
TWO RECOMMENDATIONS:
1) A Personalized Hypnosis Session will reinforce your goals and habits and insure the focus necessary to achieve and live at your very best. Click here for information.
2) Coaching is the fast track. Top producers in business, sports and scholastics all have coaches to ask the question that’s not obvious, to be an objective sounding board for ideas, to brainstorm new strategies moving forward and for accountability. How to shift from can’t to can is exactly what coaching addresses. Click here for information.
