Latest / Impact Ready / 189. Breaking Out of Irrational Thinking

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189. Breaking Out of Irrational Thinking · Impact Ready

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Welcome to Impact Ready, a show dedicated to helping you elevate
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your impact in the world. I'm Steph Safra, your host.
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Let's explore the power of showing up with intention and
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energy each day. This is for those who seek to
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make life truly meaningful. Get ready for impact.
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Hey team, welcome to the Impact Ready podcast.
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I am coming to you live from my new studio office.
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Actually what we did is moved my office downstairs into the
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basement and built a little wall that has acoustic panels up so
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it sounds a little bit better for recording content and
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recording a podcast. So I hope you enjoy.
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Hi, I just spent the last five minutes recording and noticed
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just a few seconds ago that I hadn't plugged my microphone in.
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Everything is sort of haphazardly put together.
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It's not all finished yet and got to make sure everything's
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plugged in before I hit play. So here we go.
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Today in this podcast, we are going to talk about managing
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irrational thinking. And the reason for this episode
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is because I think this is something that gets in the way
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for so many people. Not only do my clients talk
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about this, but my friends and my family will speak about this
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as well. It's it's part of being human,
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just managing. When we start to spiral or when
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we start to go down that drain of negative thinking, we have to
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be able to pull ourselves out. And I want to share a, a list of
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a few things that I think are really helpful, stuff that I
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have used with clients, stuff that I've used in my own life.
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And that's why I feel like this actually does move the needle.
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It's not just another strategy, it's actually something that you
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can put into practice and see a change.
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So let's look at this first through the lens of, you know,
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we have to learn to differentiate between what we
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are thinking and what's actually happening because that's really
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kind of the definition of irrational thinking.
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It's not necessarily rooted in reality and it can run away with
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us. And so these next 5 or 6 things
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that I want to talk about are going to help us differentiate
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between what's actually happening and what our thoughts
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are telling us. The first thing that is really
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helpful is understanding that we can't believe everything we
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think. And I know that might sound
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silly or cliche or really obvious, but the reality is we
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don't often remember that when we are in the throes of a
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negative spiral thinking, we start to believe every single
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thought that crosses our mind. I'm not good enough, I'm not
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smart enough. I've never been going to be able
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to get this done. Nobody appreciates me.
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Whatever it might be. It's very hard to remember in
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those moments. You can't believe everything you
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think. So we have to root ourselves in
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this fact that we have negative stories, saboteur voices, inner
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critics that are historical. They're not necessarily rooted
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in any sort of reality. They're just old thinking
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patterns developed from our lived experiences years and
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years ago, and reinforced because we repeatedly think
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those things over and over again.
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We also are often lacking context in a situation in the
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world. We don't have all the education
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around something. We are biased inherently, and so
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we can't believe everything we think because we're not an
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accurate source. And to be able to remember that
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gives us some calm in the storm when our brain starts to take
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over and take us down a path that we don't really want to go
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down. The second thing that's really
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helpful is to understand that your Physiology influences your
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thinking. Now, what does this actually
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mean? It means that when you're tired,
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your saboteur voices get a lot louder.
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You're less resilient to stress. You can't think as clearly.
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You just don't have the same groundedness that you would if
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you weren't tired, hungry, dehydrated, hormonal, fatigued,
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whatever it is, you have to remember that your Physiology
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will have an impact on your thinking and you have to take
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care of yourself. You have to make sure that your
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tank is full, that you are making time for rest and
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recovery or it's much easier to go down those spirals of
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thinking, negative thoughts and irrational thoughts when you are
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burned out and fatigued. Remember that.
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That is so important and we forget that because oftentimes
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we think more is more, more work is more, more achievement is
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more, and more deadlines is more.
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It's not. Oftentimes we have to
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createspace for ourselves to rest and recover, fill up our
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tank. And that way our Physiology will
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perform the way we want it to and our brain can perform in the
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way that we want it to. This is probably one of the
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things that people forget the most because many times we lose
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our awareness that the mental and the physical are
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interconnected and interdependent.
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So that's number two. The third one is to name what's
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happening when you are experiencing irrational
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thinking. Name what's happening.
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What's the feeling? Is it jealousy, anger,
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resentment, sadness, grief? Name the feeling and then see if
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you can get to the deeper root of it.
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What has me feeling this way? Am I afraid, am I deeply sad?
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Am I feeling insecure? Am I feeling like my safety's at
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risk? Whatever it might be, understand
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what is the feeling and what is the root of that.
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When you can start to understand that more deeply, you can break
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out of that pattern, that superhighway, that rutted neuro
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pathway of irrational thinking. I just had a client say to me,
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Steph, I need help with these feelings that I'm experiencing
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of jealousy and comparison. I have these goals and I know
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that I won't be able to get there if I'm in these patterns
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of thinking. And so we had her name, the
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feeling, and then we had her get to the root.
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And for her in that example, the root of her jealousy was that
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she had a deep desire to have what this other person had.
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And she also had a fear that it wasn't going to happen, which is
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so common with jealousy in comparison.
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But it was really helpful and it broke her out of that pattern of
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irrational thinking. Let me pause here for a second.
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If you're listening and thinking I'm capable of more or this is
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the level I want to operate at, this is for you.
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I work privately with a small number of high performing
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leaders who are ready to elevate how they show up in their
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business and in their lives. This isn't motivational
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coaching. It's precision work.
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We refine your energy, strengthen your ownership, and
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eliminate inconsistency so your impact becomes undeniable.
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If you're ready for that level of growth, book a private call
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through the link in the show notes.
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We'll see if it's a fit. All right, back to the episode.
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The next one is to level set expectations.
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Often times we are so wildly inaccurate with our expectations
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of things, whether it's how fast something should happen or how
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good something should be or how someone else should behave.
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And this gets in the way of us being able to see a clear
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reality. And then we start to spiral.
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We start to have irrational thinking about so many different
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things because our expectations are incorrect.
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We have to be able to look at things with a clear eye and see
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it for what it is. The classic example that I give
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all the time is in my company, Optimize You.
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In our signature program, Next Level Nutrition, we have so many
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clients who come to the program and want to reduce their
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inflammation and lose weight, but their expectations about how
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fast that should happen or what type of results they should be
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getting, they are unrealistic and they are incorrect.
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They're not even possible oftentimes.
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And so we have to level set those expectations so that we
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can stop the irrational thinking that people experience when
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they're not getting the outcome they hope for.
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Really look for this in your life team.
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Look and see what your expectations are with your work,
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with your relationships, with your marriage, with your kids.
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And if you can alter them so they're a little bit more
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realistic, I guarantee that is going to help you stop some of
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these repeated patterns of irrational or negative thinking.
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OK, next way to be irrational thinking is to get moving.
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Literally get your body into motion, whatever that might look
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like. It can be working out, walking,
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yoga, strength training, dancing, just standing up and
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shaking your body for 30 seconds.
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All that stuff counts because when your body is in motion, it
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creates momentum and you can change your state.
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The power of changing your state is incredible to break the
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pattern of irrational thinking and get you out of the spiral.
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I always tell people action beats anxiety, and sometimes
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that action is just getting out of your house for a walk or
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leaving the office for 10 minutes and going around the
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block. Action beats anxiety, movement
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creates momentum, and that stuff breaks the patterns of faulty,
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irrational thinking. It gets you out of it.
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OK, last one for today and this one might seem a little bit
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cliche, a little bit obvious, but I'm going to say it anyway
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because I've really felt the power of this.
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Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
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My coach said this to me about a month ago, and so I've been
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thinking about a lot and I've really deeply started to
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understand the power of accepting that discomfort is
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part of the game, it's part of the plan.
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I asked my clients often, do you want to be on the merry go round
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that just goes round and round and does the same thing every
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single day of your life? Or do you want your life to be
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the ride of a roller coaster where there's ups and downs and
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some parts are scary and other parts are exhilarating?
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Which ride do you choose? Every single client chooses the
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roller coaster because we as humans don't want to be on the
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merry go round. It's boring, it's not
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challenging. We start to feel stagnant.
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Most people don't want that life.
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So many people want the variety of experiences that you might
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have on a roller coaster. They want the thrill, they want
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the emotions. They want to feel something.
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So we have to accept that discomfort is part of that
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process. Life is always going to throw
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challenges at us. We know this.
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And so if we can get comfortable with being uncomfortable, we
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don't get thrown for a loop every time something happens to
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us. We don't get thrown into a
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spiral of negative thinking every time we face a challenge
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or we have a hard day. We don't fly off the handle when
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something goes wrong. And we don't get stuck in this
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loop of irrational thinking when something doesn't work out for
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us. This is really powerful to get
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comfortable with. Being uncomfortable is such an
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amazing tool to give you a little bit more peace and be
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able to step back and objectively look at your life
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and say, OK, I'm in a low point right now.
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This is normal. This is part of the game.
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I signed up for this, I said yes to it.
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This is just one of the dips that I'm experiencing.
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And ultimately I'm going to come back up again.
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That perspective is so valuable. And so despite the fact that it
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seems a little bit cliche and a little bit obvious, it's
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probably one of the most helpful things that I've really
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integrated in my life and that my clients have reported being
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helpful for them. So those are 5 actually, I think
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probably six ways that you can help manage irrational thoughts,
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irrational thinking, and keep yourself out of that spiral.
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I wouldn't even limit it to that.
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I would say that if you can practice these six things, you
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will feel more peace in your life.
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You will feel more ease. You will feel more joy because
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you'll have more bandwidth, mental bandwidth to just live
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and be and be present. We can acknowledge that it's
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always a work in progress. It's just something to be
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practicing every day and I hope it helps.
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I truly believe that we can break some of our old negative
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patterns of thinking and build new neural pathways.
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I see it happen all the time. We just have to put a little bit
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of effort into it. So that's all for today.
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Thank you for being here. I hope this serves you.
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And as always, thank you for being ready to Impact Team.
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Thanks for listening to Impact Ready.
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I hope today's episode inspired you to own your impact and
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recognize that you are powerful. By elevating our energy and
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awareness, we can create exponential change in this life.
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If you enjoyed today's insights, share them with a friend and
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subscribe to the show for more. I truly appreciate you.
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Thanks again for being here.