Seeing The Future

Look Where You’re Going! by Jane Thurnell-Read

I don’t know about you, but as a child my parents often told me to look where I was going. As a small child I was irritated by yet one more parental instruction, but thinking about it as an adult it’s a really sound piece of advice – and not just to avoid walking into other people. It’s a piece of advice for the whole of your life.

As many of you know I am a keen cyclist and enjoy going on adventurous holidays on my bike. In some countries there are long descents off mountains involving many hairpin bends. These used to terrify me, and I would brake inexpertly all the way down. Then an ex-professional cyclist gave me a piece of advice – Look where you’re going!

He explained that most people who have trouble steering at high speeds are looking at where they don’t want to go (over the cliff edge/into the rock face/towards the parked car and children) rather than where they do want to go (round the next tight bend). This seemed simplistic advice to me, but I tried it and it worked.

How does this apply to your business as a therapist or your success as a student on a training course?  It’s simple - you need to concentrate on where you want to go rather than on where you don’t want to go.

If you work with subtle energy you probably know the phrase: energy flows where attention goes. This is another way of saying the same thing – concentrate your energy and attention on positive outcomes, not on fears and negative outcomes, and you are more likely to succeed.

Sometimes people say to me: “That’s easy for you; you’re such a positive person.” Most of the time now I am very positive about who I am and what I am doing, but this has not always been true. I’ve had to work over the years to cultivate a positive attitude and to steer myself away from fears of disaster and hopelessness.

We’re all in the business of helping people change. We can change too. You may be fortunate enough to work with a therapy that can directly help you change your mind-set, or may be you have a colleague who can help you.  Even with this sort of help, you still need to be vigilant and watch out for the negative focus. When it happens, drag yourself (possibly kicking and shouting) back to the positive. If you do this enough, thinking positively becomes a habit.

Have a look at the Managing Your Life section on our sister web site Health & Goodness for more ideas about how to stay positive. If you’re a therapist it’s good to have a praise folder too.