Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / Our Mind Tells Us Stories
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to the Happy Families podcast. Today, I have
- 0:08Speaker 1: no idea what we're going to talk about. Mishappy Families
- 0:11Speaker 1: has asked for the pod, has said, I'm in charge today.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Just trust me.
- 0:16Speaker 2: It's going to be a cracker.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Can you give me a hint, because all you've said
- 0:19Speaker 1: is I've got a story to tell them. Then you're
- 0:21Speaker 1: going to talk about the science, and you're just you're
- 0:23Speaker 1: putting a lot of faith in me that I'm going
- 0:25Speaker 1: to know where to go and know what to do.
- 0:26Speaker 3: When have you ever not known what to say? Seriously,
- 0:30Speaker 3: a couple of weeks ago, I had a really poignant
- 0:33Speaker 3: experience that just highlighted how powerful the messages that our
- 0:40Speaker 3: brain tells us impacts the way we see things and
- 0:45Speaker 3: our perspective on things. And I want to talk about
- 0:48Speaker 3: how our brain tells us stories and more times than not,
- 0:52Speaker 3: they're actually not true.
- 0:54Speaker 1: So this is a conversation about helping our kids to
- 0:56Speaker 1: be resilient and not listening to negative messages.
- 1:00Speaker 3: Maybe we'll see where it goes.
- 1:01Speaker 2: Stay with us. The surprise is next.
- 1:07Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to the Happy Families podcast, where you get
- 1:09Speaker 1: real parenting solutions every single day. It's a Stray's most
- 1:12Speaker 1: downloaded parenting podcast. We are Justin and Kylie Colson love
- 1:15Speaker 1: kicking off the week with a surprise. Today, not only
- 1:17Speaker 1: do you get real parenting solutions, you also get the
- 1:20Speaker 1: same surprise that I'm getting missus Happy Families. You've asked
- 1:23Speaker 1: for the pod, Kylie? What is it that you want
- 1:25Speaker 1: to share with this? What was your story? What was
- 1:27Speaker 1: your inside? Where are we going with this?
- 1:30Speaker 3: A handful of weeks ago, we booked in some family
- 1:33Speaker 3: photos with a photographer and I had looked at some
- 1:37Speaker 3: of her photos and I'd seen a few location shots,
- 1:40Speaker 3: and we decided we'd go to a local mountain and
- 1:43Speaker 3: have some photos up during sunset. And the day of
- 1:48Speaker 3: she actually sent me a message and she said, I
- 1:50Speaker 3: don't think we're going to get the money shot today.
- 1:52Speaker 3: She said, it doesn't look like we're going to get
- 1:54Speaker 3: much of a sunset. She said, this, it's overcast, there's
- 1:58Speaker 3: not a lot of light, there won't be a lot
- 1:59Speaker 3: of color in the sky. What would you like to do?
- 2:02Speaker 3: And I thought for a minute, and I thought, you
- 2:04Speaker 3: know what, isn't that just so indicative her family life?
- 2:06Speaker 3: You plan, and no matter how much planning you do,
- 2:08Speaker 3: it just never works out the way you want it,
- 2:10Speaker 3: and so we're just going to run with it regardless
- 2:13Speaker 3: of how it works out. If it's raining, it's raining,
- 2:15Speaker 3: we'll have photos in the rain. I just thought, let's
- 2:17Speaker 3: just see how it goes. That afternoon, we showed up
- 2:20Speaker 3: and unbelievably, everything actually turned out amazing. But in the
- 2:26Speaker 3: moment when you're in front of the camera, it kind
- 2:30Speaker 3: of feels a little bit surreal in that you have
- 2:33Speaker 3: no idea what she's capturing because you're actually you have
- 2:35Speaker 3: your back to the best of it, right. And so
- 2:38Speaker 3: as we were leaving, I said to her, do you
- 2:39Speaker 3: think we got a money shot today? And she just
- 2:40Speaker 3: looked at me with her eyes like wide, and she
- 2:42Speaker 3: was like, Kylie, you got so many money shots. This
- 2:45Speaker 3: was It was just perfect. I can't believe that they
- 2:48Speaker 3: turned out as well as they have. I can't wait
- 2:49Speaker 3: to share them with you. She actually went home because
- 2:52Speaker 3: she knew on was busting, and she just took a
- 2:54Speaker 3: photo of her computer screen to just give me an idea.
- 2:58Speaker 3: She said, this is the con this is what we're
- 3:00Speaker 3: working with. And I was so excited. And if we
- 3:05Speaker 3: backtrack a little bit, I've been on this little bit
- 3:07Speaker 3: of a health kick and I had got into my
- 3:09Speaker 3: skinny genes specifically for this photo shoot, and I was
- 3:13Speaker 3: feeling amazing. When the photos arrived. Oh my gosh, they
- 3:18Speaker 3: were spectacular, and I looked at me specifically and was
- 3:24Speaker 3: so amazed at how confident I seemed, how radiant I was.
- 3:31Speaker 3: I just I felt like everything about the photos, including me,
- 3:34Speaker 3: which is not usual. I don't usually see through that
- 3:37Speaker 3: lens was just perfect, and I was so grateful for it.
- 3:41Speaker 3: Let's fast forward now. A couple of weeks later. I'm
- 3:44Speaker 3: having a really bad day. I got on the scales,
- 3:46Speaker 3: they did not tell me what I wanted to see,
- 3:49Speaker 3: and I was so frustrated, and I started berating myself
- 3:53Speaker 3: and getting really really worked up about the fact that
- 3:56Speaker 3: I'm working really hard, I'm doing all the things, and
- 3:59Speaker 3: it just doesn't seem to be paying off. And I
- 4:01Speaker 3: looked in the mirror and I just felt fat, and
- 4:03Speaker 3: I was getting really really upset, and so I thought,
- 4:06Speaker 3: you know what, I'll just go back and look at
- 4:08Speaker 3: those photos because they made me feel amazing when I
- 4:11Speaker 3: got them. And here's the crazy thing. I opened them up,
- 4:15Speaker 3: and for the first time since i'd got them, all
- 4:18Speaker 3: I could see were all the things that I was
- 4:21Speaker 3: frustrated with about my body, and I was tearing myself apart.
- 4:26Speaker 3: And I was absolutely blown away by that experience. And
- 4:31Speaker 3: as I sat with it and realized what changed. The
- 4:36Speaker 3: photos didn't change. Nothing about the photos changed. They were spectacular.
- 4:40Speaker 3: I can't wait to have them on our walls. It
- 4:43Speaker 3: was just my brain and what messages were going through
- 4:48Speaker 3: it that changed the lens by which I saw them.
- 4:52Speaker 2: Yeah, mindset.
- 4:54Speaker 3: Yeah, And so I wanted to talk about that today
- 4:56Speaker 3: because I think it was such a powerful thing. Whether
- 5:00Speaker 3: it's photos or whether it's the way we view a
- 5:03Speaker 3: relationship or the behavior that our children place in front
- 5:10Speaker 3: of us. The stimulus that they give to us, the
- 5:13Speaker 3: perspective that we view it through changes everything.
- 5:16Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah, let's talk about that after the break.
- 5:20Speaker 1: I've been making those furiously as you've been talking, thinking
- 5:23Speaker 1: about all the sciencing things that I can say to
- 5:26Speaker 1: make this make sense. And it really does tie in
- 5:28Speaker 1: with the things that we're teaching our children, the language,
- 5:30Speaker 1: the words we're using, and the way that they do
- 5:33Speaker 1: or do not face the challenges and the bad lighting
- 5:37Speaker 1: and the cranky moods and things.
- 5:39Speaker 2: In their lives.
- 5:40Speaker 1: Stay with us some science the ideas to help our
- 5:43Speaker 1: families to be happier. Next we're back. This is The
- 5:53Speaker 1: Happy Family's podcast. If you are enjoying the podcast, please
- 5:55Speaker 1: share it with your friends, your neighbors, your relatives, anyone
- 5:57Speaker 1: that you think might be grateful for some ideas that
- 5:59Speaker 1: can make their family be happier.
- 6:01Speaker 2: Hopefully it's making your family happier.
- 6:03Speaker 1: Kylie, A couple of things to pick up on out
- 6:05Speaker 1: of your story, and I'd love to I'd love to
- 6:08Speaker 1: get your input as I go through these. The first
- 6:11Speaker 1: thing I just wanted to highlight that when you got
- 6:13Speaker 1: the photos, the first thing you looked at was yourself.
- 6:16Speaker 1: I did, yeap, because that's what we do. We don't
- 6:18Speaker 1: look at everybody else in the photo. We look at ourselves.
- 6:21Speaker 1: We always talk about how kids are so self focused,
- 6:23Speaker 1: how kids are so ego centric, how kids make it
- 6:25Speaker 1: all about them.
- 6:27Speaker 2: It's a human characteristic. That's what you do.
- 6:29Speaker 1: Nobody ever gets the photos and says, oh, I wonder
- 6:31Speaker 1: how everyone accept me looked.
- 6:33Speaker 2: Nobody's sort of scanning.
- 6:35Speaker 1: Once you've had a good look at you, that's when
- 6:36Speaker 1: you start to look at everybody else's faces. But usually
- 6:39Speaker 1: you only notice you in the photo. That's just a
- 6:41Speaker 1: fun aside. The things that I really wanted to touch
- 6:44Speaker 1: on are based around this idea that our mind is
- 6:47Speaker 1: an incredible storyteller. So let's start with the idea that
- 6:53Speaker 1: our mind doesn't know the difference between fantasy and reality.
- 6:59Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you to do something, Okay, and
- 7:01Speaker 1: obviously everyone who's listening can do this as well. I
- 7:04Speaker 1: want you to think of your favorite fruit. For me,
- 7:06Speaker 1: it's passion fruit. So I'm going to use the word
- 7:08Speaker 1: passion fruit, and hopefully you like them as well. Otherwise,
- 7:10Speaker 1: maybe it's pineapple, strawberry. Let's go with passion fruit. You
- 7:13Speaker 1: open up the fridge. You know how fructas always tastes
- 7:16Speaker 1: better when it comes out of the fridge, So that
- 7:17Speaker 1: the sugars and the passion fruit, oh my goodness, they're
- 7:19Speaker 1: going to be so much better because the passion fruits cold.
- 7:21Speaker 1: You open up the fridge and you see a passion
- 7:23Speaker 1: fruit the size of the palm of your hand sitting
- 7:25Speaker 1: on the shelf. You pull the passion fruit out, put
- 7:28Speaker 1: it on the chopping board, and you chop through the
- 7:30Speaker 1: center of.
- 7:31Speaker 3: No, you don't chop through the center anymore, and spoon.
- 7:35Speaker 2: And that's right.
- 7:36Speaker 1: Well you need to in this case because as you
- 7:38Speaker 1: chop through the center of it, you don't have a
- 7:40Speaker 1: passion fruit juice. Some of it always spills out of
- 7:44Speaker 1: the passion fruit onto the cutting board.
- 7:46Speaker 3: Do we tell everyone we slurp up the juice or
- 7:48Speaker 3: should we?
- 7:49Speaker 2: Not sure? Why not? That can be part of the story.
- 7:51Speaker 1: So you see the juice slurp out or spill out
- 7:55Speaker 1: onto the cutting board, you pick up that passion fruit. No,
- 7:57Speaker 1: I want you to keep your eyes closed, hopefully you're
- 7:59Speaker 1: not driving. Keep your eyes closed, and imagine the spoon
- 8:03Speaker 1: going into the passion fruit, pulling the seeds away from
- 8:05Speaker 1: the air, just stirring it up just a little bit.
- 8:07Speaker 1: And then you lift that gigantic passion fruit pulp out
- 8:12Speaker 1: of the passion fruit. You put it into your mouth
- 8:14Speaker 1: and you can taste the sweetness exploding, the flavors right
- 8:19Speaker 1: through your entire mouth. It goes up into your brain,
- 8:22Speaker 1: the flavor, the taste, the excitement, the.
- 8:25Speaker 2: Coldness of it.
- 8:26Speaker 1: Now, let me ask you a quick question. What's happening
- 8:29Speaker 1: inside your mouth?
- 8:30Speaker 2: Right now?
- 8:31Speaker 3: I'm salvating?
- 8:32Speaker 1: Right were you salivating before I started talking about passion
- 8:36Speaker 1: fruit and fruit toast? And all those things. No, not
- 8:39Speaker 1: even almost. So do you have a passion fruit in
- 8:41Speaker 1: your hand? No, your brain doesn't know.
- 8:45Speaker 3: I am thinking about all the passion fruit growing on
- 8:47Speaker 3: our vine right now.
- 8:49Speaker 1: I hope that they work out. But here's my point.
- 8:51Speaker 1: Your brain doesn't know that it's not going to get
- 8:54Speaker 1: a passion fruit. And because it's received the stimulus, it
- 8:58Speaker 1: has started to create a phizzy iological response. And it's
- 9:02Speaker 1: the same thing around anxiety. It's the same thing around stress.
- 9:05Speaker 1: It's the same thing around sadness and depression. You name
- 9:08Speaker 1: the emotion. If you close your eyes and put yourself
- 9:10Speaker 1: in a certain situation, you will have a physiological response.
- 9:14Speaker 1: You did something recently where somebody had you hooked up
- 9:18Speaker 1: to a breathing apparatus and they were testing your breathing.
- 9:22Speaker 1: They had you in a nice, easy breathing cycle. Then
- 9:25Speaker 1: they asked you to scroll through the news headlines, and
- 9:28Speaker 1: you're breathing, even though none of the things that you
- 9:31Speaker 1: were reading about affect you in any meaningful way, no
- 9:34Speaker 1: tangible way.
- 9:35Speaker 2: What happened to your breathing?
- 9:36Speaker 3: I almost stopped breathing. I didn't, but it was very shallow.
- 9:40Speaker 3: So I'd been in this beautiful cycle of five seconds
- 9:43Speaker 3: in five seconds out, just very rhythmatic.
- 9:46Speaker 1: Six nice, easy balanced breaths per minute.
- 9:50Speaker 3: And then he hands me his phone asks me to
- 9:52Speaker 3: just read while he's talking to me. So I'm only
- 9:56Speaker 3: reading the headlines. I'm not even delving into.
- 9:58Speaker 2: And you're not reading about a war. You're reading Prince Harry.
- 10:01Speaker 3: Yeah, and all of a sudden without knowing it, Like
- 10:04Speaker 3: I don't physically feel the change. I actually didn't feel
- 10:07Speaker 3: the change until I saw it on the screen.
- 10:09Speaker 1: So the critical thing, the critical scientific insight that applies
- 10:14Speaker 1: to our kids is that if the brain, the mind
- 10:18Speaker 1: doesn't know the difference between fantasy and reality, we can
- 10:22Speaker 1: help our children and ourselves to change the script, to
- 10:25Speaker 1: remove limiting beliefs, to start to feed fulfilling, positive, uplifting, energizing,
- 10:33Speaker 1: vital positive information. Now this is not happyology. This is
- 10:37Speaker 1: not let's just pretend that everything's great. Rather, this is
- 10:41Speaker 1: about saying, what is it that matters to me? And
- 10:44Speaker 1: can I focus on that? Which brings me to my
- 10:47Speaker 1: second point. I've kind of segued from one to the other. Anyway,
- 10:50Speaker 1: My second point is this we move towards what we
- 10:54Speaker 1: focus on. What do I mean by that? If you
- 10:57Speaker 1: are writing a skateboard, if you are writing a pushbike,
- 11:02Speaker 1: if you are riding a motorcycle, maybe even if you're
- 11:06Speaker 1: driving a car. Not quite so much with a car,
- 11:08Speaker 1: although somewhat. If you turn your head and look in
- 11:11Speaker 1: a certain direction, whether you're on any of those forms
- 11:14Speaker 1: of transport, what happens is you start to move in
- 11:18Speaker 1: that direction. You and I have done this on the
- 11:20Speaker 1: bike quite a lot. I'm trying to help you to
- 11:22Speaker 1: corner a little bit better, especially after the most recent crash.
- 11:25Speaker 1: And what I keep on emphasizing is don't look where
- 11:28Speaker 1: you're going, look where you want to go. So if
- 11:31Speaker 1: you're going around a roundabout, don't look two three meters
- 11:34Speaker 1: in front of a wheel, which is where the bike's
- 11:35Speaker 1: kind of going. Instead, keep your head up and look
- 11:38Speaker 1: down the street that you're turning into, because the bike
- 11:41Speaker 1: will automatically go there. Happens on skateboards, happens on surfboards,
- 11:44Speaker 1: happens on motorcycles, happens in cars, Believe it or not.
- 11:47Speaker 1: You know, when you're driving and you look into the
- 11:50Speaker 1: back seat because the kids are there and there annoying you.
- 11:52Speaker 1: And then when you look back to the front of
- 11:54Speaker 1: the vehicle. Again, the car has veered in the direction
- 11:57Speaker 1: you looked. If you looked over your left should of
- 11:58Speaker 1: the car has moved to the left shod shoulder. If
- 12:00Speaker 1: you look at your right shoulder, the car has moved
- 12:02Speaker 1: across a little bit into the right lane. And so
- 12:05Speaker 1: we move towards whatever we're focusing on you in that
- 12:10Speaker 1: scenario in your story, your perspective has shifted because you're
- 12:13Speaker 1: focused on all the negatives. So what happens while you
- 12:15Speaker 1: look at the pictures and all you see is the negatives.
- 12:17Speaker 1: You're having a lousy day, and all you can think
- 12:19Speaker 1: about is all the lousy stuff that's going on. Again,
- 12:22Speaker 1: at the risk of moving a little close for comfort
- 12:25Speaker 1: into happyology, we really can write new scripts. We really
- 12:29Speaker 1: can say I know that things can be challenging. But
- 12:35Speaker 1: and the great thing about the word but when you
- 12:37Speaker 1: say it like this, when you say butt, you're basically
- 12:39Speaker 1: saying to your mind, ignore everything that I just said.
- 12:43Speaker 1: And usually we see it in a negative light, like, yeah,
- 12:45Speaker 1: she's a really good kid, but lately she's been driving
- 12:48Speaker 1: me crazy. Right, we can spin that around. We can
- 12:51Speaker 1: say she's been driving me crazy, but she's a really
- 12:56Speaker 1: good kid. And our mind holds onto what happens after
- 12:59Speaker 1: the butt, not before the butt. It's the same with
- 13:02Speaker 1: that photo you're looking at. You're looking at the photo
- 13:04Speaker 1: and you're inn a lousy frame of reference.
- 13:05Speaker 2: You move towards the negative.
- 13:07Speaker 1: You're looking at the photos in a positive frame of reference,
- 13:10Speaker 1: and you see the colors, you see the smiles, you
- 13:12Speaker 1: see the joy, and you remember the fact that all
- 13:15Speaker 1: of our children were well behaved for an entire hour
- 13:17Speaker 1: and a half while we took family photos one afternoon.
- 13:19Speaker 1: Never happened before, may never happen again, But it happened.
- 13:21Speaker 1: It happened, and noticed there's a butt. It happened, and
- 13:24Speaker 1: now we feel good because it happened.
- 13:26Speaker 3: I find this so curious because it makes so much sense,
- 13:30Speaker 3: and yet we push against it so much. Yes, but
- 13:33Speaker 3: I had another really powerful experience just recently where I
- 13:36Speaker 3: did a meditation and the instructor asked me to think
- 13:39Speaker 3: of somebody I loved and to offer them happiness and
- 13:43Speaker 3: peace and.
- 13:44Speaker 2: Freedom, easy and beautiful, and.
- 13:48Speaker 3: I did it easily. The interesting thing was straight after
- 13:52Speaker 3: that he asked me to think about somebody who like
- 13:54Speaker 3: a relationship that was challenging me, and funnily enough, my
- 13:58Speaker 3: mind took me to the sac same person who I
- 14:01Speaker 3: had Was it me chosen the first time? Who I love?
- 14:06Speaker 2: You're not answering was it me?
- 14:07Speaker 3: It was not you?
- 14:07Speaker 2: Oh, thank god, it was not you.
- 14:10Speaker 3: But I was surprised at both. Firstly because this person
- 14:13Speaker 3: was challenging me. But when he asked me to think
- 14:15Speaker 3: about somebody, they were the first person I thought of,
- 14:19Speaker 3: and I was able to say those words beautifully, calmly,
- 14:22Speaker 3: and I'm going to say truthfully in that situation. When
- 14:27Speaker 3: he asked me to think about them, he wasn't asking
- 14:30Speaker 3: me to think of the same person, But that's just
- 14:32Speaker 3: how my brain worked. When he asked me to think
- 14:34Speaker 3: of a person that I was challenged by. When I
- 14:36Speaker 3: tried to say those same words to the same person
- 14:40Speaker 3: that I had only seconds ago been able to say
- 14:43Speaker 3: so truthfully and so lovingly, I couldn't.
- 14:49Speaker 1: Do it right, Yeah, because you're looking through a different lens.
- 14:52Speaker 3: I couldn't do it, and I didn't understand it at
- 14:54Speaker 3: the time. But as we're talking it in one breath,
- 14:57Speaker 3: I was looking through the eyes of love because I
- 15:00Speaker 3: love this person deeply. But as soon as I looked
- 15:04Speaker 3: through another lens, it was a lens of hurt because
- 15:06Speaker 3: I started to think about all the things they've done
- 15:08Speaker 3: that have hurt me, and therefore.
- 15:10Speaker 1: I was unaching the happiness and peace when yeah, so
- 15:14Speaker 1: let's bring this back to the family context before I
- 15:15Speaker 1: share my last of my three ideas that have popped
- 15:18Speaker 1: into my head. Listen to your story. In the family context,
- 15:22Speaker 1: it's very easy to put that filter across our children,
- 15:24Speaker 1: or our spouse or partner. Similarly, our employment or our neighbors.
- 15:29Speaker 1: We put this across and we say, jeez, they drive
- 15:32Speaker 1: me crazy. They're always so exhausting, they're such fussy eaters,
- 15:36Speaker 1: they never go to bed on time, they're always at
- 15:38Speaker 1: each other. I can't get them off the screen. And
- 15:41Speaker 1: all these things become bigger and bigger and bigger because
- 15:43Speaker 1: we move towards what we focus on, and our mind
- 15:46Speaker 1: doesn't know the difference between fantasy and reality, and we're
- 15:48Speaker 1: making this the reality.
- 15:51Speaker 3: I love how you shifted your comment before you said,
- 15:54Speaker 3: you know, she's such a good kid, but right now
- 15:56Speaker 3: she's driving me crazy.
- 15:58Speaker 1: Or right now I'm me crazy, but she's such a
- 16:01Speaker 1: good kid.
- 16:02Speaker 3: That's a really simple reframe, right, Like, you haven't you
- 16:05Speaker 3: actually haven't changed anything that you've said, right, you're actually
- 16:08Speaker 3: you're sitting in reality. Reality is right now she is
- 16:11Speaker 3: driving me insane. She is pushing every button. I don't
- 16:15Speaker 3: know how to do this, but I'm able to recognize
- 16:20Speaker 3: that we're in a moment as opposed to this is
- 16:22Speaker 3: who she is perfect.
- 16:23Speaker 1: And we said the same thing about our families, right,
- 16:25Speaker 1: I can't believe we used to be happy. But my goodness,
- 16:28Speaker 1: they're driving me crazy versus they're driving me crazy. But
- 16:32Speaker 1: we used to be happy, which means we can probably
- 16:35Speaker 1: be happy again.
- 16:36Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 16:37Speaker 1: In fact, when I used to do one of my
- 16:38Speaker 1: workshops in particular, the question was always when is when?
- 16:41Speaker 1: When has your family been the happiest? Because if you've
- 16:43Speaker 1: been there once, you can get back there again. Last
- 16:46Speaker 1: thing that I need to say, because our time is
- 16:47Speaker 1: well and truly spent, and that is that our mind
- 16:49Speaker 1: does have a negativity bias. Researchers have shown, especially in
- 16:53Speaker 1: Western educated, industrialized, rich democratic nations like our own, that
- 16:57Speaker 1: we have a negativity bias. Interestingly, there's a so called
- 17:00Speaker 1: Eric Hoffer who wrote a book about creating movements things
- 17:03Speaker 1: that are not normally associated well with parenting, and he
- 17:06Speaker 1: highlights that the nearer you get to your ideal. The
- 17:09Speaker 1: nearer you get to your goal, the more dissatisfied you become,
- 17:12Speaker 1: because within region you're still not there, and it becomes
- 17:15Speaker 1: increasingly frustrating.
- 17:16Speaker 2: It's so enticing, and.
- 17:17Speaker 1: It's like, oh my goodness, I work so hard, and
- 17:19Speaker 1: we actually get quite upset about it.
- 17:20Speaker 2: But there is a really strong negativity bias. Let me,
- 17:22Speaker 2: let me ask you a question.
- 17:24Speaker 1: You're looking at a bowl of ice cream, strawberries on top,
- 17:27Speaker 1: chocolate ice cream.
- 17:29Speaker 3: I don't need that anymore. That's not very Interva's right.
- 17:31Speaker 1: You are healthy, But when you were less healthy, when
- 17:33Speaker 1: you were looking at that bowl of chocolate ice cream
- 17:35Speaker 1: with strawberries sprinkled across the top, what's happening inside your mind?
- 17:39Speaker 1: What's happening inside your body?
- 17:40Speaker 3: Give me more? I want it right now.
- 17:43Speaker 1: Yeah, craving right because it looks so good. Let's say
- 17:45Speaker 1: you're looking at that bowl of ice cream, and out
- 17:47Speaker 1: of nowhere, four cockroaches spring up from the bottom of
- 17:52Speaker 1: the bowl and run across the ice cream and the strawberries.
- 17:55Speaker 1: Who knows how they got into the bowl, but they
- 17:56Speaker 1: were in the bowl of the ice cream. When you're
- 17:58Speaker 1: on top of them, they've just found their way out
- 17:59Speaker 1: of it, and they're literally they've run across the ice
- 18:02Speaker 1: cream and the strawberries, how enticing.
- 18:04Speaker 3: Oh that's in the bin.
- 18:06Speaker 2: You're not going to eat it, right?
- 18:07Speaker 1: No, So same ice cream, same strawberries, but it's been
- 18:12Speaker 1: tainted with that negativity. Our goal, as I think about
- 18:17Speaker 1: all the things that you've talked about, our goal is
- 18:18Speaker 1: to maintain an awareness that we are easily drawn to
- 18:22Speaker 1: the negative in spite of all the goodness that's in
- 18:24Speaker 1: our lives. It's to remember that we move towards what
- 18:28Speaker 1: we focus on. So therefore, we have to be intentional
- 18:31Speaker 1: about shifting our focus to either what we want or
- 18:35Speaker 1: what is currently working, because while we focus on the
- 18:39Speaker 1: strengths and the positives, we get better outcomes. And lastly,
- 18:42Speaker 1: the mind doesn't know the difference between fantasy and reality,
- 18:45Speaker 1: which means that if things are not good in reality,
- 18:48Speaker 1: let's create the fantasy that we want, start thinking about it,
- 18:51Speaker 1: and we will find that our body and mind automatically
- 18:55Speaker 1: move towards it.
- 18:57Speaker 3: As I've gone through these experiences over the last few weeks,
- 19:00Speaker 3: the thing that really stands out to me. You talk
- 19:02Speaker 3: about negative bias. What I have recognized in myself is
- 19:08Speaker 3: that those negative thoughts, they're really bossy and they're really
- 19:11Speaker 3: loud correct word, yeah, comparative to the positive feelings that
- 19:16Speaker 3: we have. You think about those positive feelings. They're quiet,
- 19:20Speaker 3: they're calm, there's an element of peace to them. And
- 19:23Speaker 3: if we are going to be able to focus on those,
- 19:26Speaker 3: we actually have to be bossy with our thoughts. We
- 19:29Speaker 3: actually have to take control and say, you know what,
- 19:31Speaker 3: you're too loud, I don't want I don't want you,
- 19:35Speaker 3: and give yourself the time to listen to the smaller
- 19:39Speaker 3: voice that's actually probably more attuned to positive reality.
- 19:45Speaker 1: Your mind is great storyteller. Let's make sure that it's
- 19:47Speaker 1: telling you great stories.
- 19:48Speaker 3: Oh do you like?
- 19:49Speaker 1: I did that as well. I did it with the button,
- 19:50Speaker 1: then I did it with the stories. Fay Families podcast
- 19:53Speaker 1: is produced by Justin Ruland from Bridge Media. Mim Hammonds
- 19:56Speaker 1: provides our research. Having in another sport, I like that.
- 19:57Speaker 1: I reckon you should do more podcasts that I don't
- 19:59Speaker 1: have to be involved in. If I just get to
- 20:01Speaker 1: sit here and listen to you tell stories and then
- 20:03Speaker 1: share a psychological principle, I think that we've got a
- 20:05Speaker 1: lifetime of podcasts.
- 20:06Speaker 2: That was fun. Really, it was great. We should do
- 20:09Speaker 2: that more often.
- 20:09Speaker 3: You're gonna, you're gonna let me have a bit more
- 20:10Speaker 3: control these days.
- 20:11Speaker 4: For more information about making your family happier, visit Happy
- 20:16Speaker 4: Families dot com dot you, and please jump online and
- 20:19Speaker 4: pre order the brand new book, Boys Building Strong Young
- 20:23Speaker 4: Men from the Inside Out.
- 20:24Speaker 1: The brand new book by me is out in the
- 20:27Speaker 1: next few weeks and.
- 20:28Speaker 2: You can pre order it now from book toopia dot
- 20:29Speaker 2: com dot you.
- 20:30Speaker 1: That's Boys Building Strong Young Men from the Inside Out
- 20:33Speaker 1: by now.