I’m a big believer in the power of visualization.
Need to have a good meeting? Take a deep breath and picture yourself walking in and taking control of the room.
Need to relax? Close your eyes and transport yourself to your happy place. (Mine just happens to involve sun and sand and a nice cool breeze…ahhh!)
On what I’ve realized may be a related note, I have found myself giving “pep talks” to the girls during the day.
“I know you love your panties. You’re going to keep them nice and clean and dry all day, right?”
“We’re going to have a great day today! We’re going to be gentle with each other, and gentle with our toys.”
“We’re going to have a fun dinner together [at a restaurant]! You’re going to sit nice and tall and straight in your chairs while they prepare our food, and then you’re going to wait patiently for it to cool off. It’s going to be so good!”
I can’t say this always works, of course…but I like the idea of getting buy-in from the girls about what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it. I can then remind them later in the day, “Remember we talked this morning about being gentle?”
Call it a pep talk…call it setting expectations…call it Mommy visualizing the kind of day she wants to have so she doesn’t have to transport to her happy place too often…it helps me get my head wrapped around the day and approach new situations.
And I hope, in the process, I’m showing our girls that we set the tone for our own world…and that makes a happy place for us all.
Ticker
4 comments:
I love it!
We prepare our kids for anything out of the ordinary...
Granny's coming to visit today
We're going to church later and you'll have yoghurt and a muffin with Lizzy and Thembie
We're going to the doctor and she's going to look in your ears and your mouth
etc
They behave much better since we started doing this.
Q for you - do you have an impatient one? if yes, how did you start teaching patience? I have one and have no idea what to do...
I think it is GREAT...pep talks...visualization...whatever works to keep us sane! LOL!
:)
I think it is awesome way to prepare the girls for what is expected and what's coming next!! That is why you get those valued comments at the restaurants etc...
Great example!! I try to express positive ideas, esp when our kiddos are nervous about something.
This reminds me of high school track. Our last meet of the season was always our biggest competitor and the same week was our conference finals. The day before the big meet, we'd essentially get a break from practice and our coach would take us all into the pool area. He'd dim the overhead lights and the only light in the room would be the lights from under the water. We were all told to lay on the deck, on our back or belly and relax. And we had to close our eyes and be quiet.
He then morphed into this amazing motivational speaker and basically take us each through our events, telling us to visualize our movements, the turns, the jumps, the throws, our times and distances. The only sound we heard (other than his voice) was the quiet lapping of the water in the pool. He'd then tell us about the "golden liquid" that ran through our bodies - one that would give us strength and speed and endurance. We did these muscle relaxation exercises then and you always left just feeling so calm and amazing.
I ran track all 4 years and after my freshman year, always looked forward to that practice!!
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