worrying | Applied Psychology and Solution Focused Life Coaching with Dr Gary Wood

Do you believe that creativity is a quality that only ‘creative people’ possess? OK, so you may not be the most creative person in the world ever but can you honestly say that you have zero creativity? This doesn’t necessarily mean artistic skill; it’s about imagination. Are you an imaginative person?

Here’s a short quiz to find out:

Imagination Quiz

We often use this to dismiss our abilities if we feel they don’t come up to scratch, but this is weakness-focused reasoning. Adopting strengths-focused reasoning helps us to build on what we have. So:

Answer either ‘Absolutely 100% No’ or ‘yes’. If it’s not 100% ‘no. then it must be yes.

Yes or absolutely no? Have you ever watched a cookery programme on TV and found your mouth watering just watching the ingredients being prepared?
Yes or absolutely no? Have you ever read a book and formed an image of one of the characters?
Yes or absolutely no? Have you ever listened to music that evoked emotions or mental images of places or people?
Yes or absolutely no? Have you ever been worried about something?
Yes or absolutely no? Have you ever been frightened of something?
Yes or absolutely no? Have you ever had a dream, a nightmare or daydream?
Yes or absolutely no? Have you ever wondered whether there is life on Mars and what it might look like?
Yes or absolutely no? Have you ever had sexually arousing thoughts or sexual fantasies?
Yes or absolutely no? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to change biological sex for the day?
Yes or absolutely no? If you became a multimillionaire can you imagine something that you would do with the money?
Yes or absolutely no? Have you ever seen a piece of modern art and thought ‘I could do that’?

And finally,

13. Do you have any superstitions?

Scoring:

For every YES score ten points
For every ABSOLUTELY NO score zero points
Give yourself 100 bonus points if you skipped question 13.

If you scored ten points or more you qualify as a creative, imaginative person.

You could put your imagination to good use through visualization techniques to help support your goals just like top athletes do. So, instead of obsessing over a negative outcome, you can mentally rehearse a positive outcome.

Links:

Book: Don’t Wait For Your Ship To Come In. . . Swim Out To Meet It

Book: Changer votre vie ! : Petits exercices pour vous prendre en main

How Did You Get This Far? Solution Focused, Strengths Focused Learning

We usually assume that no good can come of worrying but it doesn’t stop us doing it. We run our mental ‘home movies’ of future events as if they had already turned out badly. We re-run old conversations and worry that we should have said this or wished we hadn’t said that. So can any good come of worrying?

Worrying is usually thought of as a bad thing because it focuses on the negative. However, it is possible to use the same set of skills with a positive focus. You may be surprised to hear me speaking of worrying as a skill, but it’s something we practise and we get good at it. That’s a skill.

Worrying actually involves two key psychological skills:

the ability to form vivid mental images,
the ability to create inner dialogue (self-talk).

Both are usually stuck on the ‘deflate’ setting. Once we switch the emphasis to ‘inspire’ we can create and rehearse positive mental pictures and words instead. This is what I call, positive worrying. Using these skills helps us to support our goals, taking exams, on a date, taking a driving test, giving a presentation, and so on. If you’ve got a desired end result in mind, the you can use positive worrying to build yourself up instead of keeping yourself down.

Positive worrying involves creating a mental image of the end result, or the finished line, not how you got there. Focusing on the end result creates a sense that you’ve already succeeded and helps to build motivation. It’s a technique that top athletes use to support elite performance.

Here’s a short video explaining more about ‘positive worrying’ followed by links for an inner dialogue (self-talk) exercise and a basic relaxation technique. Use them all to help create a positive change in the way your view yourself, your skills and your goals.

Links:

Self-Talk: Water Wings & Concrete Galoshes.

Two-Minute Stress Buster.

Book: Don’t Wait For Your Ship To Come In. . . Swim Out To Meet It.