In my previous blog about self-reflection I suggested keeping 3 lists over 7 days:
- What’s working well
- What’s not working so well
- What’s not working at all
1 What’s working well
As you read through this list make a note of your personal strengths that you have drawn on which have contributed to the things that are going well.
2 What’s not working so well
As you read through this list make a note of your personal strengths ( that you identified above) which you could make more use of to improve the things that aren’t going so well.
3 What’s not working at all
As you read through this list ask yourself some new questions:
- what options do I have?
- what else? (try think of as many as you can)
- what could I have chosen to do?
- how could I have done things differently using the personal strengths that I have?
- do I need help from someone else?
If the same situations or challenges happened again . . .
- how would I like to manage it?
- what personal strengths could help me to manage it differently?
- would I act in the same way as before?
I hope you can see that there is no self-blame here; none of us are perfect yet we can all learn to do things differently if needed. It’s easy to feel demoralised when we reflect on the parts of our lives that aren’t going so well but feeling demoralised can be overwhelming and lead us to negative feelings of hopelessness, anxiety and depression.
By adopting a solution focused approach you can identify and then use your own personal strengths to recognise how they are already helping you and to become aware that you always have a choice in what you do and how you handle a situation.
As a solution-focused hypnotherapist I help clients identify their strengths and resources which they may have overlooked and support them through a step-by-step process of making whatever change they are wanting to make. I use hypnotherapy (a form of deep relaxation, very similar to daydreaming) as a way of helping clients learn to relax and reduce anxiety and negative thinking which cloud our perspective.
During hypnotherapy the critical conscious faculty of the conscious mind is by-passed, allowing the creative solution-focused unconscious mind to help you listen to your inner wisdom and life experience, with new insights into yourself and the changes you want to make. Sometimes this can take as few as 3 sessions, sometimes longer as each of us is different and each of us will be wanting different changes.
For face-to-face appointments in Bristol and Skype sessions elsewhere, please call me on 07899 625156 or email me at info@cranbrookhypnotherapy.com – have a good day today! Yvonne