Reframing your thinking is your ‘Super-Power’

A guest blog by Debbie Robinson

The Japanese word ‘Kintsugi’ translated means ‘Golden Repair.’ It is a reference to the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with tree lacquer dusted or mixed with gold or other precious metals such as silver or platinum. It is also a viewpoint that treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something to hide away.

We can build our personal pathways to success by evaluating where we have been and use this to guide us to where we are going. When we screw-up and fail, when a relationship fails or when we lose our job, we tend to focus on the mistakes, the wrong turns and the damage. Just imagine if we changed our focus to the repair instead. How much more empowering and liberating would that be?

Influencing outcomes

Sometimes, unexpected things happen in our lives. A wrong decision, an error of judgement, a shock and everything seems to just fall apart. You shatter into a thousand pieces, like a broken vase smashed brutally on the ground. No matter what terrible circumstances you are facing, whether physical or psychological, the effects feel like they cannot be overcome. You feel that you will never get over it or that you will never be the same person again.

And you are not entirely wrong. The fact is you never will be the same person again. You will change for the better. This current suffering is simply an invitation. Think of today as the beginning of a lengthy process of rebuilding. Yes, it will be uncomfortable. Yes, it will be tough. Yes, it will take some time, but it will get better. Just remember… So far in your life you have survived 100% of your worst experiences!!

Begin by becoming more self-aware, noticing what you are thinking and what you are feeling (your emotions). Your outcomes are not inevitable; they can be shaped and influenced by you. This is your ‘Super-Power’ if you choose to embrace it.

Events and experiences happen – that’s just life – but it is our assumptions, either positive or negative, that drive our behaviours and attitudes, again either positive or negative. And it is these behaviours and attitudes that drive our outcomes or results.

Put simply; to improve our outcomes, we need to change the way we think about the event and/or experience.

And this really is your ‘Super-Power.’ You are in control of what you think. You have the power!

Driving our emotions

Having a basic understanding of how neurotransmitters impact us, both psychologically and physiologically, can be helpful to developing this self-awareness.

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that your body cannot function without. Their job is to carry chemical signals, or ‘messages’, from one neuron (nerve cell) to the next target cell. The next target cell can be another nerve cell, a muscle cell, or a gland.

There are four primary chemicals that can drive positive emotions: dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins, sometimes referred to as D.O.S.E. Each of these neurotransmitters plays a huge part in the way our bodies function, physically, mentally and emotionally. By understanding the role these neurotransmitters have, you can better understand how they are affecting you in everyday situations. The more you know, the more you will be able to take control of those effects and enjoy a healthier, happier life.

This was a lightbulb moment for me when I started working on changing my way of thinking. It did not happen overnight as I was well practiced in negative thinking to the point where it had become habitual. The good news is that habits can be broken and replaced with new and enabling ones. The important thing is to remember is that it does not happen instantly. It takes practice, practice and more practice!

Boost your Super-Powers

Following are some simple tools you can use to start to change the way you think and boost your ‘Super-Powers’:

Whenever I tune-in and catch myself thinking negatively, I will challenge my thinking and reframe and change it using more enabling and empowering words. Simply changing something like ” I can’t do this!” to ” I can’t do this yet,” makes a difference to our thinking and our motivation to continue and be resourceful.

The reason changing the way you think is so important to developing your resilience is because quite literally, your thoughts, feelings and behaviour are all interlinked. You have a thought, which leads to an emotion and this in turn leads to you taking an action. This process forms our behaviours and our outcomes.

The key here is the decision to change your thinking and then commit to do it, combined with the belief that you can do it.

Neuroplasticity

Your brain is AMAZING. It can adapt, change, and learn new ways of thinking. This is referred to as neuroplasticity. Your lovely flexi-brain can be reprogrammed by you and the way you think. Your ‘Super-Power’ is your ability to connect new more empowering and enabling pathways in your brain!

Think of it like this…

You are out walking in the countryside and far in the distance, you see what looks like an amazing view. Between you and that view is an overgrown field of very long grass, weeds and brambles. You decide to try and hack your way across the field to that view. It is a hard slog, the grass is up to your waist, the ground is rocky and uneven and the brambles catch on you and trip you up. But you persevere and eventually to get across and you are rewarded with a spectacular view.

Sometime later you are passing that way again and decide to visit that view a second time. The field is still overgrown and your first pathway is hardly visible, but you set off and on your way you kick some rocks aside, widen the first pathway a little and tread on those pesky brambles and this time it is a little easier and you are rewarded with that view again.

Each time you visit, the walk across the field gets easier and easier until there is a defined pathway. This is a simple analogy of how neuroplasticity works.

So, tap into your ‘Super-Powers’ and change your thinking pathways if you want your outcome to improve.

Debbie Robinson is a business mentor, coach and trainer who has guided and supported numerous businesses and their teams, helping them to develop happy, harmonious and financially sustainable businesses.

In 2015 she had the opportunity to provide coaching and training to the independent veterinary sector on behalf of Vet Dynamics, where she coached and mentored some of the UK’s now top performing independent veterinary practices.

Debbie founded VetNetics in 2022 to help veterinary practices and their teams develop leadership skills and understanding, to create happy, harmonious and empowering workplace cultures.

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