Dream
We have spent a few weeks looking at how we can stop those worries that may have been turning into phobias, but know let’s look at how we can use our minds to enhance our mood and develop a more positive mindset. First things first, if we are always putting negative things into our mind then only negative things will come out, the last few blogs look at this and how we fuel our fears and phobias. This blog is not about reassuring yourself like you might have been like in the blog up if you have anxiety or phobia don’t use these techniques for these issues, but set your goals for something you would like to feel more confident about. Maybe you have been challenging yourself at a new sport, walking, running, swimming etc or have started a new hobby like guitar, singing, painting etc it doesn’t matter what it is really, anything you want to improve in will work well with these techniques.
We all have different mindsets and we can all think about things in certain ways as well, some of these positive habits will be great, but if we have a more negative mindset this can be impacting your ability to achieve your best, at whatever you are doing. With all-new things we learn its often so easy when we start, to not feel that secure about how we do these things, or how good we are at them as well. This is normal for all new things we are learning, but if we continue with that attitude then it will start to limit our ability to do the best we can at it. Or maybe you’re doing ok and don’t put yourself down but would like to be better at what you’re learning to do, this approach will work too. This is a great way to enhance your performance by using the positive power of your mind. You can use this technique for anything you would like to have a more positive mindset too.
Our minds are amazing and getting them on our side is the key, feeling, visualising, seeing and sensing are the best languages for our mind to connect to our positive goals. If you want to look a certain way with your running try and find a picture that represents that, or if you’re learning an instrument find a piece of music you want to be able to play or a picture you want to be able to draw. A good way is to find a range of different images or sounds and make a collage of these either on paper or on your computer or tablet. Either way print it out so that you can look at this daily, or set it as your screen savers, or make a mini playlist or video with clips of the things you would like to be able to achieve so that you can listen to it every day. Then it is time to bring these dreams into reality, the more you flood your mind with the positives the better you will feel. You can also create some affirmations that you repeat several times a day, I am a fast runner, I am a gifted musician, my art takes peoples breath away. With affirmations it very important that you write them just for you, your words and how you want to feel will be the best things you can send back into your mind. So do take the time to think about these and once a week change them, as your confidence grows you can push your affirmations to the next level.
Next thing is to set some goals, it’s no good just dreaming big, we have to take action and move towards our dream to be able to make them a reality. Always remember dreaming is believing for your inner mind and for your conscious mind actions speak louder than words. If you are working to be faster at your running speed don’t just try to push yourself to your dream speed, take the time to keep edging up your speed if you have a tracker set a goal for yourself may be to set off fast or do the final part fast or whatever way works best for your training program. Then accept that you won’t do it every run, but try to push yourself on those days you feel better and let yourself off the hook when it was a push to get you out running in the first place. The same goes for wanting to play a new song find a few bars that you can do and then work to add to it, don’t try to just learn everything from beginning to end of that super hard song and then just fail at it. Breaking things down is the best way to achieve big things, steady steps are the key, be the tortoise and not the hare so that you establish a long time change that you can maintain. Instead of being the hare where you rush out, do it one time, nearly killing yourself in the process and, then never end up being able to do it again, or if you do manage it then developing that long term momentum might not happen as its too hard to maintain and it just tails off as it isn’t sustainable.
Always remember that growth and change take’s time, seeing the results means that all the different aspects need to be repeated many times over for you mind to learn to believe its self-able to achieve it. Your mind can then work on thinking and then dreaming bigger than where you were, take each step at a time. Setting reasonable goals that can be achieved is important as well if you have never played the piano before don’t expect to become Mozart in a week or two or even a month or two. Be rational and reasonable with your goals and allow the momentum of change to grow and build steadily and consistently is the key.
Thanks for dropping by Sara x
