DO IT YOURSELF CHANGE WORK
Self-criticism is a disabling energy that hinders creative thinking and reduces the quality of life. Changing thoughts from how wrong you’ve been or how badly you performed to what is possible or what is right in this very moment causes a cascade of changes in the body’s chemistry, and changes your ability to move toward positive options.
I refer to the work I do as “change work” because it’s really about helping clients change the ways they choose and manage their thoughts. When old habits of negative thinking are replaced by more positive, constructive thinking, attitudes and feelings change, too. This isn’t just “positive thinking” or a Pollyanna view of the world. It’s providing your creative self the stuff it will work with to easily change things for the better.
Finding the thoughts that hold you back can take a bit of reflection and maybe a little digging, but if you are not happy with your current state, your thoughts about yourself and others are not buried very deeply.
A client has a history of economic difficulty, and his thoughts are compulsively about what’s wrong with him and his situation. Here is some of his “change work” as examples of really dynamic change, of how he rocked his word view.
Negative self-talk: I don’t handle money well. I’m always just about two weeks from disaster.
Change to: I handle money differently than lots of people I admire, but I handle it well; I do keep everything afloat. So there’s always been enough money, and it shows up because I show up.
Negative self-talk: Being financially well-off would betray my working class roots.
Change to: Both parents wanted more for me than they had. Both parents wanted more for themselves and over time managed to achieve it. All of my birth family would have loved to see me well-off.
Negative self-talk: I can’t seem to relax about money; I’m always nervous about what comes next
Change to: Even when things are tight I manage to keep us safe and get our needs met.
In changing his thoughts and thereby his perspective, this client changes his energy from negative (attracting negative results) to positive, supporting a whole spectrum of useful possibilities.
What is true for you is dependent on your point of view. In each of the examples, both perspectives may be “true” but the disabling energy of self-criticism will usually hinder creative thinking and positive action. The more positive view invites ideas and actions that support the desired financial improvement.