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Thoughts Become Things: Does This Mean You Are What You Think?

Topic: Stress ManagementBy Stephanie GoddardPublished Recently added

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Do you want to know why you feel badly most of the time? I've done the reading. I've done the work. I KNOW what makes you (and me) feel stress, discomfort, anxiety, nervous, upset, angry, irritated...call it what you want. Bottom line: You're not happy. You can treat your unhappiness like a speck of dust that's on the projector screen in front of you. Every time the picture changes, the speck of dust is now on something else, something different. Or...you can direct your attention to where the speck of dust actually resides: on the camera lens. What you THINK creates the way you FEEL. You don't have a feeling and then have a thought about it. It's exactly the other way around. You can change the environment, the people in your life, your body, your bank account. YOU CAN get these "specks of dust" to shift and move and maybe improve. But, just like the changing scenes in a movie, it won't last. So, let's go for the pay dirt here. You have to wipe off the speck of dust on the camera lens...and that means change your mind from thinking what you think. Most of our thoughts are just theories. Is this what's happening? Could he have meant this? What was that look about? Will this traffic make me late? Will this outfit impress them? What will happen if that bill passes the House? It's all just conjecture. And very little of it is factual. Think of thoughts as specks of dust...blow them away...and put 'theories' in place that make you feel mellow, calm, at peace. How? First, always ask yourself if the thought you are having is 100% truth. Can you know without a shadow of a doubt that "the traffic will make me late"? Then what are you doing? Do you think that by being stressed and tense you will make the traffic move faster? If so, then ask yourself again, "Is this 100% truth?" Is it absolutely true that you will be late? That your tension will be communicated to other drivers and you will move the traffic along? Another way to change your mind and therefore your emotion is to turn your stressful thought around completely. The reverse is almost ALWAYS true too, if not truer. An Example So back to our traffic theory. "The traffic will make me late." The exact opposite is, "The traffic will not make me late." It's just as likely. You can't see into the future. And if we are being 100% truthful here, isn't your late departure the reason you are possibly running late? And you do have control over that...at least the next time. Post these somewhere like your bathroom mirror or car dashboard: -Is it 100% truth?
-What is the exact opposite (and is that just as true or truer?) Here's to feeling pretty darn good...starting right now. It's just a thought away

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About the Author

Stephanie Goddard (Davidson) is considered a subject matter expert in workplace communications and specializes in leadership and interpersonal skills training. Her clients include many Fortune 500 companies as well as non-profit and public sector employers.

Frequently appearing as a guest on radio programs and published in numerous articles on workplace communications, Stephanie is the author of '101 Ways to Have a Great Day at Work' which is an Amazon 'business-bestseller'; a SHRM bestseller; and has been translated into 14 languages.

She is also a nationally-certified trainer in:

-The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People®
-Frankli
Covey’s Project Management®
-"The Skilled Facilitator"® by Schwartz
-Covey’s “First Things First” Time Management®
-FIRO® Element B® ABLE® Communication Preference Wheel®
-Dynamic Dimensions International (DDI) modules
-Master certification in Achieve Global’s® leadership programs
-Ridge’s "People Skills"®
-Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: MBTI®

Stephanie lives in Raleigh, NC where she creates and conducts workshops as well as provides coaching to her local government's employees including EMS personnel, social workers, elected officials, law enforcement officers, rescue workers, engineers and city planners. She is also an instructor with the American Management Association.

See http://www.work-stress-solutions.com for more articles by Stephanie.