“Let’s start at the very beginning,
a very good place to start.
When you read, you begin with A-B-C.
When you sing, you begin with Do-Re-Mi.”
Who doesn’t love a properly themed musical reference?!? Thanks, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and the lovely Julie Andrews for the content inspo….
Instead of pushing through when you’re stuck, try the “begin again” mindset.
When you look at something through a beginner’s mindset, you pretend you’re seeing or experiencing it for the first time. And as a result, you’re able to see things more clearly and be more mindful of your response and what’s actually happening. If you find yourself having trouble focusing, or are stuck in a certain mindset, try the beginner’s mindset. Pretend to forget everything you know about whatever you’re facing and look at it from fresh, new eyes. Forget about your previous notions, or judgments, about what you’re doing and just start fresh.
How is this helpful in reducing stress? Well, in a beginners mindset, you let go of old emotions attached to the experience that may be holding you back. Because, the more you experience something, the more attached you get to the “old ways” of doing it and it gets harder and harder to let go. So you just feel stuck and stressed and like no progress is being made. So changing your mindset, even just for a few minutes, helps you solve the problem and see it from a new perspective.
My daughter did this perfectly on Cinco de Mayo. She wanted taco’s, but remembered the last time we had taco’s she didn’t like them (I tried a different recipe and it did NOT go well, lol). So I told her to forget about the last time we had them because these are new taco’s. I simply laid out all the ingredients for her to choose from, let her assemble her taco, and her response was “WOW, MOM! THIS IS THE BEST MEAL EVERRRRR!”.
You can’t make this stuff up. And she actually did scream it across the kitchen, so the all-caps are warranted.
So, seriously. Today is a new day. Forget about the past, make a new taco, and embrace the world ahead of you.
Chat with me over on the podcast about how to change your mindset and start over to reduce stress. No, you’re not actually starting over. That would be a lot of work. You’re just pretending so you can get out of your own head for a few moments. We’ll work on allowing ourselves to step away from our problems and be more productive by using a beginner’s mindset to refocus and see things from a new perspective.
Start new, start fresh. Begin again.
