Join me as we take steps toward actual positive change in our lives.
Cadre family checking in here on this lovely Saturday morning. Give a couple minutes to tune in to actualize living here with me, Eric, clinical psychotherapist. Here for this series of videos to support making actual changes in your lives.
Taking a step in a new direction is going to be difficult. But in our pain we find value. And in our values we find pain. Is the cost of comfy worth the outcome of going in the direction that continues to repeat itself?
Mindfulness is a word that's often thrown around as a cure all for getting rid of uncomfortable thoughts. But I like to propose mindfulness in a different direction, which is opening the door to the uncomfortable things we're avoiding. That's my challenge for you this week.
What's going on? Cadre family checking in here on this lovely Saturday morning. Give a couple minutes to tune in to actualize living here with me, Eric, clinical psychotherapist. I work with people all across the spectrum, from young adults, teens up to middle age elderly and everything in between. And here for this series of videos to support making actual changes in your lives. To engage the type of life that brings you fulfillment and in the way that you want to see it today. The topic that comes up is something that's quite simple.
And I think it's important to start at this place of simple. When things start getting overly complicated, when we have to overly justify our rationale or over explain our reason for this or that or this or that, we're often pulling ourselves further away from what actually needs to be done. I know that sounds vague, but what actually needs to be done can be particular to the challenges, the struggles, the obstacles that you're facing. Morning JC and Luke, thanks for hopping on here. And there's one thing that if we can accept and acknowledge opens the door to taking steps towards change that we know maybe we need to take, and that that reality is that change is not comfortable.
Taking a step in a new direction is going to be difficult. It's going to be painful. There's going to be a lot of unanswered questions, unrationalized reactions, new routines that have to come into place as we face these struggles that come up in our, our lives. But as one of my favorite philosophers, psychotherapists, whatever you want to call them, Doctor Steven Hayes says, in our pain we find value. And in our values we find pain. Those opportunities, those difficult things, those rough edges, the friction we find ourselves in is exactly where we need to be to find the directions that we want to go.
And that can look like a lot of different things. Maybe a difficult conversation, maybe it's sacrificing a late night watching movies to wake up early and start that new gym routine. And maybe it's accepting that none of that is going to be fun. But is the value, the chosen direction, worth that cost? Or is the cost of comfy worth the outcome of going in the direction that continues to repeat itself? So two things to take away. First, make it simple. If you're looking for change, often the changes that we seek exist within our environment, here and now, we know what they are.
We avoid paying attention to them because we know it also comes with what is part two. Except that it's going to be uncomfortable, but you can handle it. And not only can you handle it? But that discomfort, that pain, that uneasy feeling of new patterns, is what opens the door to fulfillment in their lives based on those chosen values, those chosen directions that we have. So today, my encouragement for you is one idea, one practice we can do to identify, alright, what things am I avoiding? Whether it's internally or externally, outside in our environment.
And that's just taking a minute. Not to escape, not to get rid of, but to observe our thoughts through mindfulness. Mindfulness. Mindfulness is a word that's often thrown around as a cure all for getting rid of uncomfortable thoughts. But I like to propose mindfulness in a different direction, which is opening the door to the uncomfortable things we're avoiding. And so what you can do, it's very simple. There's kind of two steps. The first thing is we get to a place where we're comfortable closing our eyes and slowing down a bit.
And start by just noticing five things, one for each of your senses. So that would be smell, sound, feeling, taste, and open your eyes for this site. And then the second thing we're going to observe is our internal thoughts and emotions. Often we think our thoughts, we see things through our thoughts, right. Rather than looking at our thoughts. And this gives us a chance to just observe what things are reinforcing these patterns in our lives, these internal things. And so if we can visualize our thoughts and emotions like a river and just notice what, what comes up, maybe your room gets silent and it's a little bit uncomfortable.
Maybe you notice a little pinch of sadness that's been sitting there for a little while. Can we explore it? Can we lean in and see where the opportunity is? That's my challenge for you this week, and I'm going to put that into your hands. Who's ever tuning in this morning? Because like I said, I think the directions, the opportunities for change we're already aware of, it's whether or not we build the courage to take a step in those directions. Thanks for joining me. Look forward to seeing you next week.
I hope if you're into football, we have a good game this evening.
