MOUNTAIN OUT OF MOLEHILLS
“... stop the excuses, don’t believe the lies, you’ve gotta make up your mind and try instead of making mountain out of molehills when they not even real....”
My prof would be soo proud! Ugh, look at me bringing class lessons to real life ( wipes tear) hahaha.
I am sure by now you can see a theme developing. If not, let me clue you in:
By better understanding our mind, we can pursue the visions laid on our heart because our perception is reality and as we learned last week, how we see determines how we move.
Pursuing your dreams, purpose, calling or your everyday goals, is not something that just happens. Its a lot of work, determination, vision, persistence and perseverance but more than anything it is discipline.
Discipline in a lot of areas but mostly in your mind.
By the end of the year, it is my hope that you pay greater attention to your mind.
[Truth Moment!]
Honestly, being more self aware literally changed my life.
It helped me challenge what I expected from my life, get in line with the will of God, be intentional about my actions, appreciate the every day's but most especially, helped me battle my negative thoughts.
My negative thoughts at times had me in a prison. Caged me in a constant battle that I alone could see and feel, and manifested outwardly in so many subtle ways.
It had me battling imposter syndrome, insecurities, fears, the past and I was brutal with it. It was like I had set it to repeat like a playlist on Spotify. It would catch me in the slickest of ways; in the quiet moments, on the drive home or in the shower. There was a lot of chatter going on, that was challenging what I knew and believed and what I saw. People would say uplifting things to me, sow a word in me and I would take it and break it apart chucking the good and focusing on the "what ifs" or self doubt. I know you feel what I am saying!
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In the last two and a half years, I have been undergoing an intense training if you will, of trusting God with the heavy and light stuff in my life. What I had expected Him to do was either remove and replace, reward and bless, smite and provide justice lmaooo, get me out of feeling stuck and stagnant and all that jazz.
Instead, I was involuntarily enrolled to " Renewal of Mind Bootcamp". Mind you, I did not register for this camp, did not want it, did not ask, I just wanted results cue ::sideeye::
Not recognizing, that the results I sought; the healing I wanted, the advancement and favour I was looking for, would be found first, in the transformation of my mind and repairing my perspective that would lend me to being aware of the traps my mind subconsciously created that was stifling my growth and potential.
Mind traps by definition are “thought patterns that blind you from the truth causing you to make errors in your judgement and ultimately your decision making”. According to Psychology Today, it is a combination of an exaggeration of a threat and an underestimation of your ability to deal with such threat!
Finally, it limits your POSSIBILITIES and undermines your resources to cope with INEVITABLE CHALLENGES!
What we need to understand is whatever is worked on the inside will surely manifest on the outside. Insert the clichés: " You are what you eat, What you think, so shall you be, etc..." .
So if I am recycling negative thoughts in mind on a regular basis, please know, how I speak, the actions I take on, the decisions I make, the opportunities that come by, will all be tainted by my thoughts and belief. I mean, no one deep down inside wants to be stuck in the same place intentionally all their life right? So how do we deal with this?
Lets start with the first step: RECOGNITON.
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Psychologists have discovered that we are not taught to manage our thoughts off the jump. So our brain likes to do a couple of things: Brain chatter, hot thoughts, mental stickiness, time travelling, catastrophizing ( ye say that word three times fast lool), exaggerating the negative and discounting the positive, mind reading, blaming, doing the should's and so on. For today I am just going to define 5 of these and see if you find yourself doing any or a combination of these. Once you do, I challenge you to jot down in your phone, journal, wherever, how many times a day x 1 week you do so and let me know!
Mind Traps
1. Hot Thoughts - negatively skewed beliefs which people have when they are experiencing strong and unpleasant moods like sadness, anger and frustration. In other words reacting in a very over reactive way
Takeaway: Ask yourself questions that will make you look at the situation objectively to really judge if your reaction is warranted.
2. All or None thinking- Categorize life into two extremes: black and white blinding you from the shades of grey where truth lies.
Takeaway: Listen for when you say words like always, all, never, nobody and everybody
3. Catastrophizing- Forecasting the worst case scenarios without any evidence
Takeaway: Identify the negative prediction and ask yourself where is the evidence of the conclusion you are coming up with
4. Time travelling: Refers to how instead of focusing our attention on what is really happening in the present moment, we engage in the process of ruminating over what has already taken place (in the past), or fantasizing or fabricating what will occur (in the future).
Takeaway: Release the past, Plan for the future, live in the present
5. Mind reading - You are adamant you know what others are thinking and feeling based on your feelings and not facts. Not to be confused with intuition.
Takeaway: Your assumptions are not always the truth. Check the facts before drawing conclusions
