Friday, 28 August 2009
Getting back inside your own head!
It’s quite normal to spend time trying to make sense of things but when it turns into constantly obsessing about your ex then it’s not helping you. It’s only serving to keep you stuck in the past and stopping you from moving on.
It’s time to get back into your own head and focus on yourself. There may have been things that in hindsight you could have done differently, but you didn’t and there may be things that you could improve about yourself but that doesn’t mean that you are not a loveable and worthwhile person. Whatever the reason that your relationship went wrong it has happened and yes there are things that you can learn from it so that you have better relationships in the future, but first you need to refocus on yourself so that you can create the space to do and have what you want in your life.
This kind of habit can be hard to kick and you will need to be tough with yourself, especially in the beginning. But remember if you are obsessing about your ex, then you are not paying any attention to yourself and your own needs.
Here are three key steps to bringing the focus back to you.
1. Living in the now
A great way of bringing the focus back to you is to remember that the only time that really exists is NOW. The past and the future are only there in your imagination. The past has happened and what you have is a memory of your interpretation of events and the future is your imagination deciding what it thinks will happen.
When you find yourself obsessing about the past or what you think will happen in the future, bring yourself back to what is happening NOW for YOU. What are you doing right now that you can become more consciously aware of? Are you at work or out shopping, perhaps you are sitting at home in front of the TV.
Whatever it is that you are doing; practise giving it your FULL ATTENTION. You will find that with after a while you will be able to stay focused on yourself and what is going on for you much easier.
2. Do things that energise you
Think about you and who or what you enjoy. There are a host of ways that you can energise yourself. Think about the following and make a commitment to yourself to increase your activity in the areas that appeal to you the most.
• Which people energise you?
• What activities do you enjoy?
• What treats do you like?
• What would you love to learn?
• What hobbies or interests did you used to have?
Spending time doing things that energise you will help to build up your levels of happiness and self esteem and will allow you to separate yourself from getting stuck in the past. There is usually always something that you would have stopped doing or made changes to as a result of being in your last relationship. Find out what they are and start doing them again if they make you feel good about yourself.
3. Express gratitude
We all have things in our life that we are grateful for but often we forget to pay them any attention. We tend to think about and remember the bad things that happen and forget all the good things that happen every day. When you only think about the bad things it can seriously affect the way you see yourself and your behaviour. Your behaviour affects your outcome and this can keep you in a negative cycle of thought.
Start a gratitude journal and put in it all the good things that happen to you every day. The smallest things can be a boost when you take notice of them. Don’t write down anything negative, only positive thoughts about what you are grateful for. For example “I am grateful that I arrived at work safely this morning” or “I am grateful that I like the people I work with” perhaps you are grateful that you have a really good friend that you can talk to, or that you are enjoying the book you are reading.
There are lots of little things everyday that you have to be grateful for. Focus on what you do have in your life and not what you don’t. Think about the people that you know and what they bring to your life. If you find that you keep thinking about the bad things that happen then think about the good things that have come from it. What did the experience teach you?
Remember that hard times and challenges make you stronger and by bringing your focus back to yourself you will be able to take what you need from the experience and use it to create a better life and relationship for yourself in the future.
Friday, 7 August 2009
The 3 most important steps to maintaining your self respect in a relationship.
Do you find yourself in the same types of situations or relationships again and again, or is one of your fears that you don’t want to repeat old patterns and end up in the same situation but with someone new?
Or perhaps you are currently in a relationship and you are wondering why you keep ending up in the same place and going round in circles. Here are three ways in which you can re-evaluate what’s happening and make conscious changes for the better.
1 – Be honest with yourself
Only you can decide what you want to change and the only person that you can change is yourself. It has been said that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over again and expecting different results!
Often we know what we don’t want more than what we do want and this can also make you feel like a victim when that is what you think you get. Get really clear on what you do want. Trust your intuition and make choices based on what you know deep down inside will make you feel good about yourself. Being honest with yourself will help you to reset those boundaries and make the changes that you want
2 – Take responsibility
It can be all too easy to allow yourself to feel like a victim of circumstance or other people, but when you do this you are effectively giving up your power and individuality to someone or something else. In some circumstances you may find that there are hidden benefits to playing the role of victim, but essentially; you are not a victim – you play a part in all relationships.
Accepting your part in the relationship, is a huge step towards releasing your own power and individuality and when you take a look at how you are feeling and what your behaviour has been; it will help you to see things from a perspective that will enable you to make changes for the better. Decide what is acceptable and set clear boundaries for yourself as well as others and when necessary discuss these honestly.
3 – Change the way you treat yourself.
If you don’t treat yourself well, how can you expect others to do so! Invest time and energy into yourself and take a long hard look at the things that you say to yourself. If you don’t feel that you are worthy then you will put up with bad behaviour from other people, and again it is about taking responsibility for what you are projecting. So start with you, show some appreciation– until you know what you are worth – you can’t expect others to. Never look for someone else to complete you – complete yourself.
For more ways to learn from the past and create the life and relatiosnhips you want for the future why not sign up for my FREE teleseminar series
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
What happens when you don't see eye to eye?
We all have different perspectives and sometimes we can get stuck thinking that if other people don’t see things the same way that we do then we have big problems.How many times have you told someone something that you are really excited about and their response puts an instant downer on things and you lose the excitement that you had only a moment ago? I know it’s happened to me many a time.
When this happens you have a choice – and boy do I love choices. You can choose to allow yourself to get upset and feel negative about what the other person has said and possibly lose interest and enthusiasm for what ever it was that you were excited about or you can look at things from their perspective even if only for a moment to find ways of improving or adding to your idea in the first place.
When you look at things from a different perspective you can actually open up a whole host of new areas and ideas for yourself.
Sometimes something that you can argue about for ages is just a matter of perspective. Think about the last time you had or witnessed an argument, you could probably see two clearly different points of view and possibly a third if you were a witness to the argument, but really it’s simply a matter of different perspectives.
Think about something that you may be having a disagreement about at the moment and suspend your belief for a short time to look at the other person’s perspective. What new ideas or questions come to you that could maybe improve things or bring about a compromise.
By looking at things from a different perspective you release yourself from being trapped in beliefs that ‘this is the way it is and has to be’
Try it, remember you are not losing anything, you don’t have to give anything up - you are simply gaining a new perspective and understanding of yourself and others.
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Thinking outside the box
This exercise is to help you tap into your different resourceful selves; giving you a fresh approach to the task in hand... read more
