Emotional Roller Coasters

Summer is winding down now and I can't help but feel a little sad. Why does time
always seem to fly when having so much fun?...I guess it is helpful to remember that
the peaks and valleys are what make the roller coaster ride we call life so
exciting.  With all that being said, I would like to chat this week about how to use
a little tool called 'reframing' to manage the peaks and valleys of your emotional
state.

Sure all is grand when life is good, but how do we manage when life throws us a
curve ball and our emotions take us for a ride? I like to remind my clients first
and foremost that your emotions are there for a reason.  Emotions are the messenger
between the brain and the body. When you feel something uncomfortable emotionally,
that is because your emotions are trying to alert you of some sort of dis-ease in
the brain.  Usually this dis-ease stems from a thought process that is
unresourcesful. 

An unresourcesful thought process is merely one that is not self-supportive. Tracing
the uncomfortable emotional state back to its roots (the thought process) can be a
very valuable approach to understanding what the messenger is trying to alert you
of.  Identifying the message is what will enable you to change it or replace it with
something more resourceful and self-supportive. I'll borrow a line from our friends
at AA  here: "you can't change what you don't acknowledge."

Lets use a simple reframing exercise here. Rather than focusing on all the things we
will be saying good-bye to when summer ends, lets try looking through a different
lens: what all do we have to look forward to when fall arrives? You see by just
changing the lens through which you choose to view things, you can regain control
over your emotional state. This is an important lesson to master when trying to
practice emotional intelligence. 

Give this tool  a whirl next time you feel the emotional roller coaster setting in. 
I promise it will help you achieve more peaks than valleys.

Until next time, make every performance count!
-Coach Susan