Have a look at the picture below... What do you see? As a therapist I have to have regular supervision. Today I spent time with my lovely supervisor, discussing possible strategies to help certain clients. My supervisor told me about a technique she uses... She gives her client a piece of white paper with a dot in the middle and asks them to describe what they can see. Most, if not all, describe the black dot. Their attention is drawn to it and it’s the one thing they describe. She then draws their attention to the space surrounding it... the vast majority of the paper which is unblemished, clear and available to be used for a myriad of different things. When you know, it seems obvious. It’s a metaphor for life and the way in which, quite often, our attention can be drawn into one, narrow viewpoint. How often do we find ourselves obsessed with something we can’t do, with a person who irritates us, with all the awful things that might happen? It’s certainly one way of looking at things, but what if we chose a different viewpoint? What if we looked at the space around us? The things we can do? The people who nurture us? The wonderful things that might happen? We choose the narrow, often negative perception because, over time, noticing the negative has kept us alive. Noticing the poison berry, the dangerous animal, the hostile tribe has enabled us to survive. But in this modern age there is another way. We have a positive alternative because the ‘threats’ these days are not actually life threatening. We can, with help or with reflection, change our mindset, change the very structure of our brain to make our default way of thinking a far more positive experience. Rather than focusing on the bad we can become aware of the possibilities. And the possibilities are always far more abundant than one might at first think. It’s just a case of changing mindset, changing perception. Often we can do this of our own accord. Sometimes we need guidance on how to do that.. The important thing is that it can be done and when we change our mindset we can change the way we live. And that can be a joy💜

Posted by SarahA at 2019-06-08 06:34:59 UTC