Hey listen… in case you haven’t heard, we are in the middle of a global pandemic.
Which, I’ve noticed a lot of people say is causing all of us to feel a little more stressed, anxious and overwhelmed.
Calling “Bluff”
But, if you know me… you know that I am going to call “bluff” on this assumption. The pandemic can’t make us feel any certain way.
Neither can:
- Getting temporarily released from our missions
- Ending our missions before we expected
- Not being able to go to our our originally assigned mission
- Not being able to leave on our missions the same day we were planning to
- Doing our MTC Training online
ALL of these things are circumstances going on outside of us. They truly, in and of themselves, can’t make us feel anything.
The only time that any of these situations can make us feel anything at all…
Is when we have a THOUGHT ABOUT them.
So Many Thoughts and Even MORE Right Now!
It’s been estimated that we have 40,000 – 60,000 thoughts in a single day. Most of these thoughts we are completely unaware of. Our brains just start to run on auto-pilot.
But, I’ve started to feel like, during a global pandemic, we have WAY more thoughts than we normally do, and about everything… including the things that I listed above.
More Thoughts = More Emotions
So, maybe it does start to feel like we have more emotions like stress, anxiety and overwhelm, but it is only because we are thinking MORE THOUGHTS.
We have the choice to let our brains run at a rampant pace, and be at the mercy of our spinning mind… or to sit down, take a look at what is going on and employ a little bit of mind management.
Manage Your Mind
One of the very first steps to managing our minds is taking a look at what is going on in our brains, by doing a Thought Download. I encourage my clients to do this in 5 steps:
- Get a piece of paper and a pen
- Set a timer for 5 minutes
- Write for the entire time. Put down every single thing that comes to your mind. Let it all come out on your paper without any filter or judgement.
- Separate out the things that are Factual: example – I got released from my mission after serving 15 months.
- Separate out the things that are Thoughts: example – This isn’t the way things are supposed to work out.
Yay! for Thought Downloads!!
The Thought Download is an amazing exercise that I recommend you do regularly… especially during this time when we all have soooooo many extra thoughts.
If you start to practice this tool of mind management, you’ll start to have more clarity in your thinking. You’ll start to show your brain what things are just true (The Facts) and the things that are optional to believe (The Thoughts).
Now… This is where my experience as Life Coach comes in. There are other tools that I can teach you, to help you figure out what all of your thinking is creating for you, and you’ll get to decide whether you like those results. I’d love to help you take a look at what is going on for you. And I’m really good at it. I always say, “Two brains looking at your brain are always better than one!”
But, for now… you’ll get so much clarity and understanding just by doing the Thought Download the way I have explained.
Awareness is the very first step to managing our minds. And mind management helps us take our emotional power back from all of the things going on outside of us.
Yep. Including during a global pandemic.
So, pull up that timer on your phone, grab a pen, and start writing.
