Flipping Thoughts!

Flipping thoughts! Here we go again… you know, that conversation you hold with yourself, “Oh NO! Not again!” “Why does this always happen to me?” “I can’t believe this is happening to me again, after everything I did to not do it!”

Whatever conversation you hold with yourself when something negative happens, it probably isn’t the first time you’ve had it. For many people it is a familiar experience.

I want you to give yourself a couple of minutes, right now, to bring back the last time something like this happened. Close your eyes now.

How was that? Was it recently, or a while ago? I’d like to take a small side bet with you and say it was within the last seven days?

I was working with someone before Christmas – she was one of my last clients before I broke up for the festivities. I’ll call her Jane.

Jane was struggling to understand why she found it so difficult to move forwards with plans for her new business, when she had put so much effort into creating her dream.

We chatted about where she thought she was ‘stuck’ and what it felt like for her. While I listened to her story, I realised that she repeatedly mentioned how she ‘gave herself a good telling off’! When Jane came across challenging situations or problems, she ‘got tough’ with herself and created an internal conversation that included lots of strong and negative talk.

After bringing her attention to this fact, I helped her to create a new thought process; flipping her thoughts.

Jane has been working on this, and other things we covered in her session, but she recognised that flipping thoughts has been the biggest change, with the greatest results.

Why don’t you give this a try? When you recognise that internal negative conversation, stop! Tell your self ‘flipping thoughts!’ and find something positive to say instead. Imagine you were talking to your best friend or someone you love. Use different questions – “How can I make this better?” “What would be a nicer thing to say?”

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