You may think that your behaviour is dictated by your emotions. This is not
necessarily true. Read Chapter 2. I just don’t feel like it! It’ll help you understand that
you can still choose to take a certain action, regardless of how you feel. What’s
more, you can also learn to change your emotional state into a more powerful one.
Yes, you can train yourself to do this. You’ve been in a resourceful state before,
which means that you have that ability. And, you can work on skills and techniques
that can help you to shift to a more resourceful state.
This is where you have to experiment until you have a repertoire of skills/techniques
that you can choose from when you wish to change your state. The more you
practice, the better you will get at being able to shift your state at will. How
wonderful it’ll feel unleashing a more powerful you!
Practice
Spend a few minutes visualising the last time you felt resourceful.
Remember everything in great detail from where you were, what you
were doing, what you were feeling, seeing and hearing. What were
you wearing? What was the weather like? The more detail you put in,
the more you’ll recall the exact feeling. When you are truly feeling
resourceful, choose a task you don’t like doing and do it now. Notice
how much easier it is to do the task.Begin to notice the kinds of things that make you feel better. Keep a list in your
journal of things to do when you are feeling down. I know if I have a hard gym
session I feel energised for the day. Certain songs uplift my spirits. Sitting for five
minutes in the sun with a cup of tea often calms me down and I go back into the
office feeling more determined. You could also give yourself a pat on the back –
acknowledge what you have done well. Reward yourself (but not with something
that induces guilt).
Sometimes you may be thinking about something you have to do and you end up
feeling quite overwhelmed. Break up the task into chunks. Now focus on doing the
first piece and don’t worry about the rest.
Practice
Spend a few hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon going through your
music collection. Create a playlist of songs that make you want to sing
and dance. Keep that playlist ready to use when you have the blues.