Role Bleeding (n.) - Each area of your life typically has you fulfilling a certain set of expectations based on the people or situation. Your specific role can be consciously chosen, assigned by the group, or even unconsciously fallen into based on your past. "This is really hard. I'm not sure I can do it," says your friend or student as they begin freaking out about an upcoming event, test, or stressful life experience. You believe in this person's abilities and reply back, "It will be okay. I'm sure you will do fine." You then watch as the person fails miserably. What the heck happened? You have faith in this person. Is it possible your well meaning encouragement actually may have hindered your friend or student's success rather than contributed to it? This week we learn about Defensive Pessimism. Monkey Mind (n.) - As you begin to do a meditation practice, you will notice that your mind has the tendency to just chatter away. You may be constantly planning, ruminating, justifying, thinking about last week's TV show, and on and on. This inner dialogue does not often stop. It leaps from topic to topic like a monkey from branch to branch in a tree. The name we give to this often mindless mental chatter is called "Monkey Mind." Trigger (n). - An external stimulus that invokes a strong fight, flight, or freeze response is a Trigger. A trigger can be based on undealt with issues, past traumatic experiences, or can be environmental in nature. When the trigger is related to a strong traumatic event, the individual can experience flashbacks, the return of repressed memories, or find themselves mentally disassociating or shutting down. When the trigger is environmental, a person is reacting to something outside their control in their surroundings like repetitive sounds or certain visual images. We won't cover trauma-related and environmental triggers. That's for you and your therapist. For this post, we are looking at non-trauma triggers. Or, as they are sometimes affectionately known, drama triggers. Best Self (n.) -- Your best self is the part of you that goes into difficult situations and acts with wisdom, clarity, and purpose. We use the term "best self" in the emotional intelligence world to represent the you that you are fully capable of being -- the very best version of who you are as a person. |
My Writing and Other Resources for StudentsA growing collection of writing and other resources for students to use to continue their growth.
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