I know I have not written for a while the truth is, I have been struggling to have my balance back.
The new year rolls in, foolishly you think everything will somehow be better this year but immediately catastrophes pure in, the wildfires, earthquake in Elazig (east of my country), then Coron
I started reading this book `Super Attractor` by Gabrielle Bernstein only to be reminded what I already know but have forgotten to practice it for a while. The big news is `our troubles won`t end, especially the ones that pertain to the world in general, if anything I do believe they will get bigger & worse, as the world does not want to learn from its mistakes. The only thing you can change is `your perspective`. I know that Gabrielle might not appeal to those of you who are not spiritual, but I know that lot of disciplines & approaches came to this conclusion. I did Co-Active Coaching and there they named it Balance coaching, where the coaching starts from the way you look at your own situation, and open up alternative ways to approaching your situation, and starting to take actions on the approach that fulfils you the most. I am studying `Psychology of Mental Health` and we are exploring Cognitive Behavioural Therapy which is all about how you think about the situation, can makes you depressed or happy. The way you think about your situation will affect your behaviour and ultimately consequences will change when you start thinking & acting differently. For those of you who are religious, you will know this, being grateful, and thinking about people who might be worse off than you, is an aim to change your perspective, and see that there is a greater plan for you.
Why everyone is not following this magic formula then? I believe that the main obstacle here is that most people don’t believe in the fact that changing the way you think about a situation alters the situation. Thinking in a certain way is a discipline, and most people think they can`t change the way they think. I know lot of people like this, if `x` happens to me, I will think and feel `y`, and there is no way to make it `z`. That’s the first obstacle, `to believe` that you can feel and think differently about stuff that is happening to you. The second obstacle, they don’t recognize how much discipline and effort it takes to shift your perspective, after a couple of trials, people don’t stick with this discipline and they don’t see the fruit of it. The truth is It`s not easy, for some of us Its harder for others its a bit easier. You just got to be at it all the time. I liked Bernstein book because it does give tips to make it a habit, to have a check-in with yourself every morning. Especially for the mornings where you don’t feel up to face the world, to uplift yourself and to start to think more positively about your day. To think and visualize that you are getting the most out of your day, visualising you are achieving your goals for the day, puts you in action for the right direction.
Visualisation is a big part of this, and Stephen Covey talks about this in his very much acclaimed book `7 habits of highly effective people`, to visualise that you are doing the ultimate goal or smaller goals that will bring you the ultimate goal is a big part realising your life or work goals.
It is so interesting that some people have found this quite early on in their lives, did you watch Jim Carrey on Graham Norton Show (posted on web 14th of December, 2014), it`s so interesting, he seemed to have understood this when he was only a little child. In the video, he talks about it jokingly, but I have watched him talked about it more seriously elsewhere, he truly believes it. Find the video the web & do watch the video, and watch how others react…
As my dear friend Nilgun Akyuz said as we were discussing about perspectives, `change your perspective, change your life`. And don’t you ever give up…..
Good post! We are linking too this great post on our site.
Keep up the great writing.
Great article. I am dealiung with a few of these issues as well..