Latest / Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor / Mojo Monday: Need to Get Out of Your Head? Try this Strategy, with Carly Taylor

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Mojo Monday: Need to Get Out of Your Head? Try this Strategy, with Carly Taylor · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hi everybody. Carli Taylor here for this week's Mojo Monday.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I've got a bit of a cold at the moment,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: which is why I'm probably sounding slightly nasally. There's a
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: lot of nasty bugs going around Melbourne at the moment,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: but hopefully this one won't get any worse. So I
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: was talking to a clinical psychologist the other day who
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: works in the area of mental health and obesity intervention,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and he's actually extensively trained in Marita therapy, which is
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: why I was talking to him, and he uses Marita
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: therapy and other Japanese techniques in a clinical setting. And
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: he said something to me that I already knew, but
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the way he presented it really struck a chord with me.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And that is a simple tool that we can use
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to get ourselves out of our heads, and that is
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to use our fingers. So he pointed out that we
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: are not our thoughts. In fact, what he actually said
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: as we are not the rubbish in our heads. But
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: as humans, we innately seek comfort and this is a
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: driving force for us, and it's something that is really
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: important that we are consciously aware of our innate need
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: or drive to seek comfort, and this sort of made
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: me reflect on the strategies that many of us use
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: to try and quieten the noise in our minds. So
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: do you crack open the wine when you're stressed? And
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: while it's fine to do this on occasion and it
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: numbs the pain short term, relying on alcohol as a
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: strategy regularly doesn't serve us well in the long term.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Or perhaps you find yourself living for some ideal future
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: where its stress is magically disappeared, and this is what
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Marita described as a contradiction of ideas. This is where
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: we struggle to accept our current reality because we're clinging
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: to this idealized future. And there needs to be a
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: balance between striving through a better future whilst also living
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: life in the present moment. And often we become so
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: preoccupied with waiting and hoping for a better future, especially
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: when things are really challenging, that we miss the richness
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: of our current experience. And sometimes wishing for things to
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: be different can be a form of avoidance of what
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: is happening now, and this can stagnate us. So ask yourself,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: are your current strategy serving you in the long run
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: or are they short term? And these are strategies to
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: try and manage the rubbish that's in our heads. So
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: are they a way to avoid your own comfortable feelings
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: or do they motivate you to take meaningful action. So
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: here's a simple yet effective strategy to help shift your focus.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: So use your attention like a flashlight. So imagine you
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: are holding a flashlight and the beam of light represents
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: your attention and you have control over where you direct it.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: So you direct it either inwards towards your thoughts and
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: your feelings or outwards towards the world around you. And
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: one practical approach is to shine that flashlight of attention
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: outwards to engage in activities that involve working with your
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: fingers and working with your hands. So the clinical psychologist
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: explained beautifully that there's this space between your mind and
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: your hands. Things like cooking, gardening, even fixing a bike
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: or a car, any type of craft, even resistance training
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: requiring your attention to be directed through this space. For me,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: it's cooking. It's a perfect example of when you've got
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to follow a recipe and you focus on each step,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: which requires this presence and concentration. So engaging in these
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: hands on activities can offer a very much needed break
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: from our overthinking and our stress, and by immersing yourself
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: in these tasks, you can shift from feeling stuck to
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: being absorbed in what you're doing in the present moment.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: So many of us need a break from the inputs
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: that are dominating our lives right now, and they can
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: fuel our overthinking and rumination, and that's when we often
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: feel stuck. So activities that involve turning that attention outward
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and using our hands and our fingers is a way
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: to give ourselves a break. Have a think about what
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: you can do that will turn that beam or re
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: direct that beam of light away from your mind and
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: that inner chatter and onto an activity that you can
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: absorb yourself in. So my plan is to cook something new,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: something that I've never done before. So I'm going to
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: flick through some recipe books and see what I can
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: come up with. Have a great week, everyone, and I
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: will catch you next week.