My Friends!
I am super excited to switch things up a little bit this week on the bloggity-blog.
So instead of hearing MY thoughts and words, I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine: Courtney Rioux, a clarity coach for actors who feel stuck and want more out of life (and an actor as well!)
She has such an infectious spirit and I cannot wait for you to dive into this exercise today -- I'll be doing it right alongside of you!
So set a timer for 10 minutes on your phone, grab a piece of paper and let's do this thang!
How to Change Your Life in One Exercise
by Courtney Rioux
If you catch yourself avoiding something that you want to do, it’s because you’re associating more pain with the action than pleasure. But guess what? There is way to crush these mental blocks and fears – the very ones that are preventing you from creating the life you want!
Today I’d like to share an exercise that will get rid of your bad habits and create some new, empowering habits in their place. This is important because your habits are what created the life you have right now!
Do You Choose Pain or Pleasure?
When we’re in the habit of putting things off or associating pain with things that must get done, you actually have to trick your brain into changing its focus so that you want to do it.
Here’s what I mean...
Think of something that you want to do but you’re not doing because it feels hard. Maybe it’s cleaning the kitchen, or pressing play on your workout DVD.
Maybe it’s submitting to an agency or writing that book or meditating or eating clean. Whatever it is, let’s change your frame of reference on that thing right now.
Take out a piece of paper. On the top of the paper, write down whatever it is that you’re avoiding.
Draw a line down the middle both ways, so that you have four squares.
In the upper left hand corner, write, “Why I want to do this.” In the upper right hand corner, “Why I don’t want to do this.” In the lower left hand corner, write, “Why I’m scared to do this.” And in the lower right hand corner write, “Why I’m scared I’ll never do this.”
And then fill in the answers! Don’t judge them, don’t edit them; just write them down and some things will pop up for you that may be surprising.
You’ll see, “Oh, I get it! I’m afraid to do this because I’m afraid of what other people will think of me. Okay. So what if I didn’t care what other people thought?”
After you do this, you’ll have a lot of insight into how you’re thinking about these seemingly impossible tasks.
Take a moment to reflect. Focus on the two squares that read, “Why I don’t want to do this” and “Why I’m scared to do this.” Maybe you have answers like, “It will take too long,” or “It will be hard,” or “It seems impossible.”
Reflect on those. Are those things really true? Is it really hard to sweep the floors? Is it really impossible to fill out your tax forms?
Why are those two things not true?
Next, focus on the other two squares. And think, “Okay, I’m really going to remember that I love to clean the floors because it makes me feel organized and empowered and it makes me actually do all the other things I want to do.”
Take This into the Real World
I’ll give you a real-life example from one of my clients. I was working with someone who woke up in excruciating pain every morning. She could barely get out of bed because she was in so much pain and she would miss work because of it.
She found out that if she quit eating sugar she wouldn’t have any pain. She felt 30 years younger, she had energy and vitality and could finally live her life fully!
But then she started to associate sugar with fun. Now, if you associate sugar with fun instead of pain, what do you think you’re going to want to do? Yeah, you’re going to want to eat it! Why would you ever want a life with fun cut out of it?
I took her through this exercise and it completely reframed her perception of sugar. She was able to completely cut it out of her life – and you know what? Not being in pain is a lot more fun than eating sugar!
Now it’s your turn. Leave a comment below with the homework that you did.
What was the thing that you were avoiding, and what did you gain from working on it?
Wanna connect with Courtney?
You can find her at The Whole Artist, or on Instagram (@courtneyrioux) or Facebook (@thewholeartist)