Day 136 - A Year to Clear - Zip It, Zap It
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Photo by averie woodard on Unsplash
Lesson 136: Zip It, Zap It
Eradicating obstructive thoughts takes a lot of awareness. It does take routine over and over to recognise when a thought does not serve you and it’s hard to come out of some negative cycles. With the lesson from the last post of “Strike that”, Stephanie Bennett Vogt lists some examples of what types of thoughts may roam in our brain and essentially what we need to strike out of our thought processes:
- [Aghhh] The traffic is terrible, we're going to be late to the airport, we're going to miss our plane, our vacation is shot. Strike that.
- [Ugh] This task is taking forever. I don't think I'll ever finish clearing my piles. It's time to check my emails. Strike that.
- [Groan] I have no time, there's no food in the fridge, the house feels cold, I'm fried, this day has gone from bad to worse. Strike that.
What we do need to acknowledge is how we feel during those types of thoughts – do we feel tightness in our chest? Do you feel you heat up? Do you feel muscles tighten? Do we tense up? Does our breathing change? Etc.
Today is all about zapping out any negative thoughts right in this second. Mine for today is all the feelings I have towards my work situation. I am trying to change my thought processes – even went to a councillor to get the advice to think better. What was explained to me is that my expectations can be set too high and when they are not met, I become frustrated and anxious because I’m waiting on things to happen that are outside of my control. I’m working on it for sure though I find it difficult when all you want is some direction in your work life. If the management don't have answers when you need them to give directives, it makes you question their ability to lead. I recognise that I get tense when I think about this. This seems to happen in random places of my body. I can heat up as well because I’m usually frustrated and angry over it. I am trying to change this way of being around as it is wasted energy.
All I can say is that I am mindful of it and putting things into place to be calmer. I was told by my councillor to lower my expectations of the company in order to not become anxious or frustrated. The company needs time to figure it out so if I be more understanding from that point of view, then it will allow me to return to my normal self. This is what I’m working towards and I admit I have not conquered it yet. I do recognise what I need to change in order to overcome this situation. I am sure I will be fine.