Spilled coffee and eliminating negativity.
Use these four steps to mop up your negativity!
Want to feel more positive? Here are four easy steps!
This morning didn't start well. I filled my coffee cup and headed for my desk. I wasn't paying attention as I set my cup down and spilled coffee all over my desk. I immediately looked for something to wipe up the mess as I said something not very nice to myself. Isn't it interesting how quickly we can be so critical of ourselves! My negativity didn't end with the spilled coffee, it continued as I began my work and it spread out, throughout the next hour, just the way the spilled coffee had spread across my desk.
We all know what to do about spilled coffee. Get a cloth and mop it up! But what do you do about spilled negativity? There is no cloth that we can use to just wipe it up, right? Well, not so fast! When you catch yourself being pervasively negative, you can turn that around quickly by simply using four easy steps.
The first step begins with noticing your negativity. When you notice, you are simultaneously admitting to yourself that you could feel differently. The second step is to take a deep breath and get more oxygen into your brain. This is important because when you are thinking negatively, your brain is on high alert and oxygen is being diverted from the brain to other parts of your body. You need that oxygen for problem-solving.
The third step is to focus on the present. You stop ruminating on the past or projecting "what ifs" into the future. Instead, you can focus on exactly where you are right now. By focusing on your present environment, you can ground yourself.
Finally, engage in purposeful daydreaming. Take a couple of minutes to continue breathing and let your mind wander to a happy moment when you laughed so hard you hurt yourself or to an imagined, peaceful place, or think about a loved on or a favorite pet. This sort of daydreaming gives your brain a mini-vacation and triggers the release of happy hormones.
Like the cloth that cleaned up the coffee mess, putting these four steps (recognizing, breathing, grounding, and daydreaming) will clean up the negativity in no time!
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Books by Dr. Daoust
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Content for these blogs are all based on Dr. Daoust's books!
