Like most of you, I wear a lot of hats—mother, business owner, WIC president, and caretaker to name a few—all of them requiring time and attention. On top of that, the universe has thrown what feels like a bajillion curve balls over the past three years, from big stuff (death and major illness) to a constant string of annoyances (power outages, sitter on jury duty, computer crashes, you name it).
A while back, I developed a mantra—go with the flow. But lately, the flow has felt like a class-five rapids, and I’ve felt myself alternating between feeling irritable and burned out. Even my barometer of family health (everyone I love is healthy, so the rest is inconsequential) wasn’t enough to create inner peace amongst the chaos.
The solution? A simple word.
Reframe
trigger word n a word that initiates a process or course of action
A few weeks back, a word came to me: Reframe.
It came while I was dealing with a series of those annoyances I mentioned. And when it appeared in my mind, I said it out loud to myself. All of a sudden, I felt less burdened. The stressors were still there, but it was like they weren’t living inside of me. I was watching them objectively and looking at the situation from a different perspective.
So I adopted Reframe as my trigger word—and it’s definitely helping me go with the flow. How can I reframe the situation, look at it in a different way, approach it in a different way, feel about it in a different way?
Does it work all the time? Nope. But it sure works better than not having any trigger word. And it definitely makes the class-five rapids more of a two.
So my recommendation to you is to find your own keyword. It won’t necessarily be the same as mine, but you’ll know it when you find it. The word will resonate with you, initiating a new process or course of action when you say it. Oh, and saying it out loud makes a difference.
It works for a variety of situations, too—whenever you want to think, feel, respond differently to a situation.
Do you already have a trigger word? Or do you ride the course-five rapids in a different way? I’d love to hear about any and all. You can never have too many tools.
