In today’s blog I am going to focus on the following:
- The practice of rehearsing your challenge
Disclaimer:
None of this should be treated as professional mental health advice. As with my podcast, social media and any other materials I produce on topics around mental health, self esteem, confidence and personal growth this is me sharing my own experience as an individual, working with a coach, being formerly a coach and other unnamed individual stories (unless permission gained to share their name). I am not a qualified mental health professional. Please seek professional help where appropriate to do so.
Today I’ve not felt at my best physically, a racing heart that seems to be speeding up. Better lay off too much caffeine lol (although I only had one coffee). In the past I’ve noticed it’s mainly thoughts that make my mind race so I’ve been using a couple of tools to calm myself down which seem to be working. Today I wanted to share one. I find also the gallon of water a day I’m drinking alongside exercise helps counter some of the challenging thoughts.
I have a huge toolkit for my psychology and thoughts, yet when I’m in the state of high adrenaline and cortisol being pumped around in my body it can be overwhelming on what to use at times in the past. So being proactive helps as much as possible than waiting to get into a moment of high stress and anxiety.
My mentor Joseph McClendon (one of the top High Performance Specialists in the world) said an huge point best yesterday though when I was listening to him on a recording before a live call (love that guy). He said something not for the first time, but at a point where I heard it differently which is why repetition is so important. He said practice in advance for when you experience a challenging emotion. What that means is if you know you get a certain feeling in the day, practice in advance interrupting the pattern not just when it arises in reactive mode.
He introduced me to something called the STOP technique which helps to some degree too. This is when you allow yourself to feel bad deliberately, do something like jump up or smile to interrupt the pattern and then replace it with a good empowering thought and keep repeating. The art of doing this proactively even when you feel ok is that you have the process embedded when a challenge does show up.
Note: this is just one effective tool I’ve found, it’s not a replacement if you have serious mental health challenges always go to a professional.
This has been a very short one today, I just wanted to express my latest thoughts and excitement behind putting this into action more and more. It may not necessarily make sense for you now but I look forward to updating you on my progress.
Look after yourself.
Jonny
Jonny Pardoe, 10th May 2023
