Reframing is something I seem to have been talking about in the treatment room a lot this year. I first came across the term ‘reframing’ whilst exploring the tenets of NLP (neurolinguistic programming). In short reframing is about putting your best rose tinted glasses on, and turning negative perceptions into positive observations, changing the focus of your perspective to a more positive, helpful one.
We often talk about the power of the mind, and many of us may prescribe the remedy of mind over matter in some form or other, myself included but do we really believe it, do we really practice it? Hmmm … I suspect that for a lot of us, the answer in truth, is no.
So last week I had an excellent reminder of the power of the reframing. It’s Autumn and like many people I rarely feel at my most lively once the temperature has dropped and the days get shorter and darker. I always feel healthiest in the warmer, lighter months, and have a tendency for feeling, just pretty mediocre or worse during the dark winter months. So I awoke on Saturday morning feeling utterly decrepit. My body aching, awash with a feeling of feebleness I took my coffee to the couch, laid down again and pondered why on earth I felt so crap. Is this what I have to expect now I thought, is middle age just pitted with days when your body feels useless because you’ve been over doing it? Do you have more and more of these days until you stumble into old age and this feeble decrepity becomes every day life? Is this the slow decline? Should I stop doing some things etc…Ugh utterly miserable.
So whilst sharing this little slice of gloom with my husband (I like to share), we both pondered why I felt particularly crap that day and then it suddenly dawned on me that the previous day, I had attended a new yoga class. A great yoga class in fact. An Iyengar yoga class that involved holding some challenging precision poses. Yes!!!! Of course that was. It, I had really challenged my body yesterday and flexed some muscle that had been forgotten about for a while. In an instant I went from feeling weak and decrepit to feeling totally positive and vital. An instant ten years younger without inflicting any pain on myself or my bank balance! I went for a run later that day. My husband, who often quietly (and wisely) observes the fluctuation in my mood, and the power that my mind can yield over it, commented that I would not have run had I not remembered the reason for my aching body. Of course he was right( I may keep that to myself), and it certainly did make me think about how I really must listen to my own advice and make a conscious effort to reframe a little more enthusiastically … try it, its worth a try, and its cheaper than that collagen subscription…