It's like the theory of the möbius...

Late night musing: are you stressed? If you would class yourself as someone who is stressed, how much stress is the fact that you are stressed causing you? Mental isn't it? It's perpetual e-motion!

It's interesting how many times you find that trying to avoid the emotion you are trying to avoid is causing the emotion you are trying to avoid (read it again, I promise it makes sense!). Anxiety about anxiety, anger about anger, sadness about sadness...the list goes on. 

How to break it? Many ways but here's two simple tips. First, realise the futility of it and think about how ridiculous it is that you are caught in this emotional loop, then take charge of it (not control, charge) and focus on what you would like instead and ONLY on what you would like instead. See how it changes the way you feel. 

Loops. It's like the theory of the möbius...

This late? On a school night?

Late Night Musing; the Hawaiians had a phrase that went a bit like this - A'ole pau ka 'ike i ka halau ho'okahi

It's a fabulous phrase, isn't it? :)

OK, of course I'm going to tell you what it means; roughly translated it means 'think not that all knowledge comes from one school'

It's easy to become transfixed, captured by a thought or a method but it's very important to understand that no matter how much you know, you can never know everything.

You are only an expert in what you know now and to believe that what you know now is the only way or the truth is a fallacy.

We learn so much when we step outside what we think we know and try something new or adventurous.  When was the last time you did that?

The moments that define us

Late Night Musing: why is it that we accept that, in moments of negativity like fear, regret or uncertainty,that our lives can change in a second, never to be the same again? We hold these moments dear, telling people how we'll never forget them and then replay them in our heads again and again making ourselves feel crap and keeping ourselves trapped. 

Yet, in moments of joy, happiness or extreme excitement for instance, when life gives us a treat of epic proportions we believe them to be temporary,fleeting moments, with no lasting impact past the immediate afterglow. We let them slip past us as quickly as they happen never to be replayed, held deep in our memories gathering dust and losing their potential impact. 

Isn't it just the same process in reverse? 

Replay your highlights every day; life will never be the same again. 

No Doubts...

Late Night Musing: what does it mean to believe in yourself? I mean, we say the phrase like we know what it means yet, for most of us, we don't. We know how it feels (or doesn't) but we never think about what we actually do to get that feeling.

Here's my thoughts, for what they are worth. Self belief, like many things, is a process. A doing thing that you are actively involved in. It's again, like confidence, not a commodity. I can't buy it, I do it. I can't trade it, I feel it.

But how? Well, it's simple. When you approach a task or context with a picture running in your head that tells you that, without doubt, you are going to do the thing you want to do then you get the feeling of self belief.

However, what many of us do is we run pictures of doing well with an internal commentary that tells us that there is no way this is going to happen and we are actually rubbish. There's a flaw in that strategy!

Your thoughts and self talk are under your control. No-one expects you to be perfect all the time. Always do your best, no-one can ever ask anything more. It's easy to believe in yourself when your expectation is to only ever do the best you possibly can. You can't do anything more or less, can you?

I believe...