Our brains have a real negativity bias, nothing wrong with them, that is part of their job. We are wired more or less the way we have been since our cave people days, that is to say, to notice danger. Our ancestors had lots of dangers and troubles, like the proverbial tiger or dinosaur attack, so their brains, were wired to keep a lookout for dangers, in order to survive. Our brains are still wired the same way, only most of us are not on the look out for dangers such as tigers and T-Rex, but we still are very alert for the negative.
I recently heard a Life Coaching client tell me that she had reached her goal of 20 lbs lost, she told me she spent about one minute celebrating that achievement before starting to think about the next 20 lbs she wants to lose. She wasn’t being negative, her brain was doing what it does, looking out for danger, so it can alert us to trouble. Our brains don’t register the difference between real or perceived dangers, that part of the brain’s job is just to look out and alert us.
Our brains are magnificent. The trouble is for many of us, we get stuck in the negative, like our brains are working too well. When this happens we don’t experience, the good things in life as fully as we can. So, we go over and over the negative and literally skip over the good stuff. The good news is, we can train our brains to do both! So we keep the part that warns us of danger and train the part that experiences joy. We can do that by taking the time to celebrate successess and reaching goals and feeling joy, We stop, we literally let the feeling be in our bodies, we can develop celebration routines, like going for a pretty walk or call a friend or whatever helps you feel the celebration.
As a Life Coach, I get to celebrate with clients every day, the changes they make in their lives, the wins big and small, we celebrate, we take time to feel the joy and the accomplishment. It is super important to helping retrain our brains.
I am celebrating success today for myself and a client, check out this testimonial.
My general, uninformed idea about life coaches was that they were not really trained and not really helpful. Boy, was I wrong! I had the good fortune to have Susy support me during the thick of the pandemic crisis. Susy is profoundly knowledgeable, incredibly supportive and, through our weekly sessions, she was masterfully able to help me untangle many knots and messes in my head! I was able to better define my priorities and reclaim the time and space for them. Here is a concrete, life-changing example: as a business owner, I’d always been shy and hesitant to charge what I know my products are worth. Thanks to my work with Susy, I was able to discover how my attitudes toward money were shaped and how to replace those old beliefs with new, more relevant ones. I am now able to conduct business with more confidence and conviction. Needless to say, it has made a big impact on the viability of our business, particularly in these challenging times. I recommend 100% working with Susy if you’re ready to create some of the changes you know are necessary in your life.
I am taking the time to celebrate this. I am feeling happy, excited and good. I will share it with my husband and feel the joy. I will most likely go for a special walk with Ruffus, in short I will train my brain to experience celebration.
My suggestion to you is try celebrating your successes, notice what your brain is telling you. Notice how you can tell your brain to celebrate and it will. What can you celebrate today? Do it!
Let me know how it goes.
Warmly,
Coach Susy
