Nearly a decade ago I spent some much needed time in recovery surrounded by spacious farmland with some mental health professionals who without judgement unpacked my trolley full of self sabotaging patterns of behaviour and toxic thinking. Their objective was to support me as I found the pathway to live with PTSD, anxiety and depression.
The self discovery work untangled 15 years of institutionalised conditioning, the impact of a toxic work place and distorted childhood beliefs about relationships that left me asking ‘Who Am I?’
My first effort at writing was this little ebook, My Shopping Trolley Is Full. It was part poetry, part journaling and loads of little drawings that gently opened me up to new strategies of soothing the anxiety, climbing the ladder out of depression and reframing the compounding impact of trauma.
This book was just an idea, that turned into a thing, that became a passion, and is now my career!
So here are some of the coping strategies I was taught to find myself and fill my cup, that a decade on have become mainstream and popular. Little did I know, that I knew them, were doing them and believed in them but I was passive and allowed others to judge, dictate and determine my levels of personal success that kept my trolley full. Life lesson : If you don’t run your life someone else will.
- Dream Big, I mean really big.
- Time Chunking that Big Dream into bite size pieces.
- Scheduling Priorities by your Values
- Goal Setting with regular reality check in
- Affirmations with I AM
- F.A.I.L. Focus Attention Intention and Live
- Mind Mapping Ideas
- Research the skills for self development
- Sourcing
- Take Action Steps
- Stressed out or Overwhelmed
- Transference
- Self Validation (intrinsic)
- Identify Fatigue and Self Care
- Plan, Plan, Plan for Success (meetings, communication, agenda, follow up and feedback)
- Take the Pressure off yourself
- Face the Fear, what’s the worst that can happen.
- Dissuasion Demons : thinking you are not good enough
- Look @ your Language
- Feedback is care and concern not criticism
to FIND YOUR IDENTITY