Reframing
A helpful little technique brought to you by my therapist
First off, some business! How’s everyone doing? Personally, I’m still dealing with health stuff, my son is in the throes of summer-camp-free-summer, and I’ve been battling day-job deadlines. We also had our biggest Green Envelope Aid donation week since the relaunch (yay!), and a “very special episode” of Hollywood Confessional is out with my personal strike hero and everyone’s fav, Fake Carol. Like life, there’s some good, there’s some bad, and then there’s just some … … …
Thankfully, this is where REFRAMING comes in!
What’s reframing, you ask?
Cognitive reframing is a technique you can use to change how you think and feel about stressful situations.
source: verywellmind.com
Well, that sounds great, right? It is sort of magical once you get the hang of it. The trick is you can’t just “reframe” something and walk away from it, you will need to process your feelings at some point. (I know, right? I’m sorry about that!)
But, let’s see this baby in action, okay? For me, my deepest insecurity/stress/fear right now is the fact that despite 17-freaking-years in the business, I’m still considered to be on “the bottom rung” of my career ladder with no current tangible hope of that changing. In other words, “Poor me, I’m not staffed on a TV show right now and I’m constantly worried about money / if I’ll ever be staffed on a TV show again.”
It’s a legitimate fear! This is my career and livelihood we’re talking about! But, let’s get ready for the reframe: If I were on a show right now, I wouldn’t be able to have time to deal with all this health stuff and spend a hopefully fun summer with my son. Hmm, when you put it that way, not being on a show doesn’t seem so bad.
Going a step further, I do have a writing job that is paying me enough money to pay my bills right now but is also affording me a very flexible schedule to spend so much time with my kid (who currently doesn’t have childcare or a father with a reliable schedule). My needs are being met, just not in the way I expected. Huh…
See how neat reframing is? It’s not that I’m suddenly a-okay with my fears and insecurities, but I certainly feel a little better about them.
What are some things that can use a little reframing in your life?