Latest / The Shift Podcast / 120. Interrupting Negative Thoughts

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120. Interrupting Negative Thoughts · The Shift Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Frontline Static, we will get to hear interviews with
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  some of my clients journeys of getting into flight and how they
• 0:05
  utilize coaching to help them create success of getting hired
• 0:08
  with less confusion and more ease.
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  Make your dream a reality of getting into flight.
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  Listen in as you hear some of the stories of the people
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  getting there and come join the flight prep group.
• 0:16
  Welcome to episode 120 of How to Become a Flight Nurse Podcast.
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  Today I'm going to bring you the topic that we discussed inside
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  the Flight Prep Academy this week.
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  I just thought it was so good to continue on with this
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  conversation because I think a lot of you who work in
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  healthcare are plagued with this right here.
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  So I want to bring you the conversation and the topic of
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  what we kind of discussed at the beginning of our weekly call
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  this week inside the Flight Prep Academy.
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  I don't know about you, but when I first started in the ICUI
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  would come home with these thoughts that would play over
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  and over and over in my head. And sometimes they would sound
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  like, did I do everything right? Did I put everything in my
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  charting? Did I give report right?
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  Is my nurse manager mad at me? Are my coworkers mad at me?
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  And I would just replay all of these thoughts over and over and
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  over and over again. If you guys can relate to this
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  in any way, shape or form, this episode is going to help you
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  with the ongoing thoughts that your brain offers you.
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  So the way that I want to explain this, and I explained
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  this to the group this week was they kind of laughed at me
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  because they didn't know what this was.
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  But in California specifically where I live, there are a lot of
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  mosquitoes. Mosquitoes have been so bad this
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  year that we actually have a machine or I mean a truck that
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  comes by and sprays pesticides like once or twice a month in
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  the street because the mosquitoes are so bad.
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  And I am just the type of person who the mosquitoes love me.
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  They eat my skin. I get bites everywhere, usually
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  like 5 or 10 at a time. And then they Welt up and they
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  become really big and I, I almost think I'm kind of
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  allergic to them. So mosquitoes have been really
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  bad and really prominent in my area, and it's really humid and
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  hot where I live. So there's these things called
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  mosquito eaters, and they're pretty big in size.
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  You might even think they look like a spider.
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  But they have wings. They have 8 or 10 legs and you
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  can find them in your house sometimes.
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  And often times you're like, oh, what is that?
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  And you don't see the mosquitoes because the mosquitoes are so
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  small and you hear them. But these mosquito eaters look
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  disgusting. They're big, but you don't want
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  to kill them because they in turn eat the mosquitoes that
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  come into your house. So the way that I was
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  explaining, this is my youngest son, whenever he sees them, he
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  freaks out and he spends a lot of time screaming about it and
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  making a big deal about these mosquito eaters.
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  And I'm like, just leave it alone.
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  They're not a big deal. We don't want to kill them.
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  They're eating the mosquitoes. Just focus on something else.
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  And so this is what I wanted to bring you as an example of of
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  your thoughts that can spin around in your head.
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  They can be like this mosquito eater where you see them and you
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  can consciously choose to spend a lot of time with these
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  negative thoughts that your brain offers you, or you can
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  just notice and let them be there and not spend a lot of
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  time with them. Some examples of these negative
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  thoughts that pass through my brain on the daily is you're not
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  doing enough, you're not doing it quick enough, you didn't get
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  through that task quick enough, you're being lazy.
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  When I take a moment to not do anything at all, those are the
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  thoughts that can plague me and can come over time and time
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  again. In my head, we think something
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  like 70,000 thoughts a day. Now those are my common ones.
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  And before I found the tools of poaching, I would spend a lot of
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  time paying attention to those ones, paying attention to that
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  big mosquito eater instead of just realizing, oh, that's one
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  of the 70 thousand thoughts that I'm going to think on the daily
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  and not spend a lot of time with it.
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  Just let it hang out and be there.
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  We don't want to kill it. We actually don't want to get
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  rid of it. We're just going to let it be
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  there. And so this is what I kind of
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  wanted to talk to you guys about today.
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  Knowing that we have 70,000 thoughts a day.
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  There are ones that our brains like to put on repeat,
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  especially when we're stressed, especially when we're tired,
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  especially when we're overworked or especially right after a
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  shift. And for me, those were like, I'm
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  not doing enough. I got to do it quicker.
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  Do they like me? Did I mess up on something?
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  Are they going to find me out? Like those were completely
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  ridiculous thoughts that my brain would like to offer me.
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  And I still kind of still have those ones currently.
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  Like, am I being lazy? Like you're being lazy, you're
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  not doing enough. You're not checking the things
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  off your list. What does that mean if you
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  don't? So this is what I wanted to talk
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  about today to kind of mitigate and help you with some of these
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  thoughts. The other example that I gave
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  that I actually heard on another podcast episode this week was,
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  and I'm going to just say it like a little bit differently.
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  If the mosquito eater one doesn't doesn't isn't helpful
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  for you. It's like thinking about you
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  have the front door slightly cracked because you didn't close
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  it all the way, and then you have a sliding door to your
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  backyard. And it's like those thoughts are
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  coming in the front door and they're going through your house
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  and they're going to go out the back door.
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  But we can choose to intentionally spend time with
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  those negative thoughts that are coming through the front door,
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  or we can just allow them to pass through.
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  And what happens when we spend more time with these negative
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  thoughts? It affects our day.
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  We ruminate on it, we judge ourselves on it, and then we
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  just let that take up all of our time.
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  I don't know if you guys have heard the podcast episode that
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  Taylor Swift did. I, it was like on Travis Kelce's
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  podcast, but she said your time is expensive and how you spend
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  it is expensive. And it just made me think of
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  this like what we spend time with thinking effects our day,
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  effects our outcome effects how we feel and show up for the day.
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  Same with what we spend time thinking about other people's
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  thoughts of us. And this is like really what she
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  was getting to is we can spend time thinking about how other
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  people think about us, or we can just look at as our time as
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  expensive and not everybody will will get to have your time and
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  you get to intentionally choose what you spend time with.
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  So I wanted to give these two examples because we don't want
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  to judge the thoughts that we're having.
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  We just want to notice that they're hanging out there.
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  We just want to notice that they're a mosquito eater and
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  it's going to be there. We don't want to kill it because
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  it's going to help us. We don't want to get rid of it.
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  We just want to let it be there, but we don't want to.
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  We want to choose to intentionally not spend time
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  with those thoughts. So I offered them these three
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  questions and I'm going to kind of talk through and offer you
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  these three questions too. And these are really three steps
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  that I utilize every day as I'm having these thoughts and I'm
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  choosing to intentionally spend times with certain ones.
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  And here's the thing guys, no ones perfect at this.
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  I'm not perfect at it either. There's days where I'm super
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  tired or I'm frustrated at my kids or my family or whatnot and
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  I choose to ruminate more on these negative thoughts and I
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  let it affect my whole day. You guys all know what that
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  feels like with the end of the day where you're like, I am just
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  feeling frustrated and down in the dumps.
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  But I want to give you a conscious 3 step process and
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  three questions to think about to help you pull yourself out of
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  it. If it's been ongoing for you, if
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  it's now moved into days and weeks so that you can as you're
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  working towards your flight goal or as you're working towards a
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  big goal or leveling up or creating confidence, this will
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  move you in a different direction.
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  So the first question to think about is what is the negative
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  thoughts that your brain is offering you?
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  Sometimes we can just be like, I feel terrible today, I feel
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  frustrated. But naming what the thoughts are
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  that's creating that feeling for you will will give you more
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  intentionality on what it is. So what negative thoughts is
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  your brain offering you? For me, my examples are I'm not
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  good enough, I'm not doing it quick enough, I'm being lazy.
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  Another example that I want to give you and then I've talked
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  about here on this podcast before, but I think it's good to
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  talk about for the last 15 years that I've been a nurse, I worked
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  a night shift and then I did 24 hour shifts.
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  So being tired, and I know all of you guys can relate to this
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  is just something of the norm, but I did realize that all my
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  conversations and I would start out every conversation outside
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  of work with I am tired. My kids would say or my husband
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  would say, hey, how is work? I'd be like, I am tired.
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  I go to a social event or an outing and I'd be like, I am
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  tired. It's like I LED with that
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  thought and that's the first thought that my brain offered me
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  and it was on so much of replay and default that I didn't even
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  have to ask myself, am I really tired?
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  I just said it. And that was one of the negative
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  thoughts that always like, came up for default for me.
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  But when I started realizing that, I started saying it a lot.
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  I asked myself, oh, am I really tired?
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  Or am I just saying this because this is the easiest thing to say
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  and that my brain wants to offer me all the time?
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  And so I just say it. And I realized sometimes I
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  wasn't even tired, but I would just say, oh, yeah, I'm tired.
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  It was a long shift. I'm tired.
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  And So what I did was I started to notice that that's the
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  default that thought my brain, that's a negative thought my
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  brain wanted to offer me. So then I would ask myself
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  before I said it, am I really tired?
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  And then I would start to make conscious effort to say
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  something else. And when I started doing that, I
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  decided consciously to never say that again.
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  And I very rarely you guys ever say, even if I am tired, I very
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  rarely say I'm tired because I just grew the capacity to be the
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  person who consciously made the effort, even if I was to say
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  something else and to think about something else.
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  And so that's an example of a negative thought that maybe your
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  brain offers you on repeat. And maybe out of the 70 thousand
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  thoughts it offers you that 50,000 times during the day.
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  But knowing what those are has you realize, oh, when I just say
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  I'm tired all the time, it has me frustrated.
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  It has me not wanting to go out. It has wanting me to pull back.
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  It has me wanting to isolate. It has me wanting to stay at
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  home and sit in bed or sit on the couch and watch Netflix.
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  So the first thing is what are the negative thoughts that your
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  brain is offering you on repeat? Name them, know what they are,
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  write them down. The second step and second
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  question I want to offer you is what would be different if we
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  didn't judge that we had them and we didn't spend more time
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  with them. So just like the thought, I'm
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  tired. I don't want to judge myself
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  that I have it. It's like, of course I'm tired.
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  I worked a long 24 hour shift. I had to do a bunch of charts.
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  I had to work overtime or I didn't get any sleep, right?
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  Like circumstantially, yes, of course we're tired.
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  So don't judge yourself that you're having that thought if,
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  but don't allow yourself to spend time with it.
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  Just let it be there. Just let it be that big mosquito
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  eater that is ugly and is hanging out in the corner of the
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  ceiling of your room. So what would be different if we
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  didn't judge that we had them and we didn't spend extra time
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  with them? That's Step 2.
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  Step 3. The final piece of this is what
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  can we decide to be thinking intentionally that is believable
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  for you right now? So instead of thinking about I'm
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  tired, I'm not doing enough, I'm being lazy.
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  What's a thought that we can intentionally be thinking about
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  that is believable for us? Now for me, sometimes what I
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  have to go back to is I'm doing the best that I can with what I
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  have. I'm doing the best that I can
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  with the little sleep that I have.
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  This is why it is good enough. This is what I am intentionally
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  doing today. That is good enough.
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  OK, yes, I am tired, but I do know how to do things tired.
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  I do know how to do hard things. So what is the intentional
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  thought that is believable for you right now?
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  And what's important about this third step is that you want to
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  decide ahead of time. Decide ahead of time what that
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  thought is going to be. So for example, one of the other
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  negative thoughts my brain always offers me is I'm not
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  doing enough. Like just on the day, it likes
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  to tell me that every day you're not doing enough, you're not
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  doing enough. And an intentional thought that
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  I've chose to really work on in this last month and that's been
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  really working for me is but this is the plan.
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  I'm doing the plan. I'm working a plan.
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  OK, brain, I hear you. I might not be doing enough.
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  I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm thinking that I'm not doing enough.
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  But this is a plan and it's working.
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  And so decide ahead of time what's believable for you.
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  What's the intentional thought that you can go to?
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  And then when the negative thought comes up, when the big
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  mosquito eater is there and you want to freak out about it, go
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  to that thought that you decide and spend more time with that.
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  Because when we can spend time with the intentional thought,
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  our actions will be very different.
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  We're going to go about our day very differently.
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  And here's the thing, we have agency to choose out of these 70
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  thousand thoughts. So we can choose to continue to
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  Roman and on it, feel bad about it and go into this deep dark
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  hole, or we can let it be there, not judge that it's there, and
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  then intentionally decide to focus on something else.
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  OK, I hope that this episode helped you guys that might be
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  feeling stuck or might be ruminating on a thought or
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  having your brain with this thought really work against you.
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  When we can intentionally choose what we are thinking, our days
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  will be very different. How we work towards our goal
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  will be very different. And I do want to add this to the
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  end. You can have doubt and be scared
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  and still take action. So if these negative thoughts
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  that you are having, like for example, mine, you're not doing
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  enough. If those are causing negative
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  emotions for you, you just so that you can, you know, you can
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  have doubt and still continue to take action.
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  And sometimes that's what we got to do when we can't get rid of
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  them. Sometimes we got to just let the
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  big mosquito eater be in the side of the room and still take
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  action anyway and still go on with our day.
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  If you guys want help getting unstuck, if you want help
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  working through these thoughts, this is the work that we are
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  doing inside the Flight Prep Academy.
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  The plan to get to flight is easy.
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  Map out your plan, do ride alongs, prep for interviews.
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  It is easy. But it's all the mind drama and
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  chatter that your brain offers you.
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  It's the obstacles, it's the starting and the stopping.
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  It's the going through with the plan and doing it on your own
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  that is hard. So if you want help getting to
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  flight, you want the community, you want the support, you want
• 16:44
  want to work your plan, and you want to get on track both with
• 16:47
  the mindset and strategy, come join us inside the Flight Prep
• 16:50
  Academy. That is what we are doing on a
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  weekly basis and a daily basis in the ongoing community group
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  chat. I'd love to have you guys
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  inside. You can click on the link in the
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  bio now to get started or reach out to me if you have any
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  questions. Let's get you to the flight
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  goal. Let's have you starting to think
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  more intentionally. When we can grab on and think to
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  our intentional thought. That's how we create the results
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  that we want on the daily. That's how we start the momentum
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  and that's how we compound them to getting to our flight goal.
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  All right, you guys, I'll talk with you guys next week.
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  We'll see you bye. If anything in this episode
• 17:24
  sparked your interest into getting into flight, come join
• 17:26
  my flight flight group. We are an entire community that
• 17:29
  meets together on a weekly basis with an ongoing group chat.
• 17:32
  And if you are already flying and you are currently a flight
• 17:34
  nurse or flight medic, you can join my all flight clinician
• 17:37
  group as well. You can click on the link to
• 17:39
  join in the show notes or you can DM me on Instagram.
• 17:41
  I hope to see all of you guys inside.