So many reinventions are driven by a need for a fresh start, for being more adult, for a new, different, better self. But my proposition is that we keep our core style and then expand on it, instead of starting from scratch. Partly, this is because as a teenager / young adult I continually tried to make a brand new personality for myself, and it never stuck, never felt right,… Read More »Secret Weapon #1: Ready Your Armour
Last week, Smoke fell off the garden fence. As far as I can tell, having heard the scuffle and physically carried him inside, he fell on his leg/hip and was scratched in the face by the neighbour’s cat. Whether this was one of his balance mistakes or he had been cornered, we’ll likely never know. He limped around, yowling a bit, and was restless for a few hours after; unable… Read More »How to Learn from the Cat’s Mistakes
As a fiction writer, conversations with parts-of-myself feel a little less woo and more common than perhaps most people might find. If writing our conversations between two characters for a scene is ‘normal’ then writing out from “future, confident me” to “current, worried me” really isn’t so much of a stretch. I’ll begin with the cognitive side of the story. From the scientific side, journaling has a few benefits.… Read More »How To Talk *With* Your Fear
For those who have taken a psychology class, you may have heard of something called “Miller’s Law” or just “the 7 (plus or minus 2) rule” about human nature. Today I’m going to apply this memory rule to those (big or little) life projects or self-development quests. Don’t worry if you hadn’t: I’d never heard of the first term until this week, and the second was a tiny part of… Read More »How To Use Psychology for Life Project Success
We’re all works in progress. I don’t believe we’re ever truly ‘done’ with growing, with inventing ourselves or evolving our personalities. I’m not very good at giving up, and I’ve spent decades reinventing myself. I believe it’s okay to have different sides of ourselves, different costumes. My business is no different. What began in 2011 as The Phoenix Mind, has now evolved to Rooted Reinvention. Because as I shift, grow… Read More »Works in Progress
Progress in anything suggests that one of the key indicators of successful progression is tracking. Especially when looking at the number of day planners aimed at productivity or the neuroscience of habit formation. Almost like an obvious secret, having information on how things are going and what isn’t working is crucial to making the correct tweaks in the path forward. And yet, we’re often blocked from unlocking that information. We don’t… Read More »Why Tracking your Progress is a Crucial Life-Skill
I began supporting young adults in Anger Management courses back in 2011. The groups ran for 6 sessions, mixing lifestyle choices, peer-support and neuroscience in the education aspects. Practically speaking, we led mindfulness exercises, drew on flip charts, and used boxing gloves. Integration This was the job where I truly learned the power of mixing education and theory with practise and guided support. During one session, a phrase about commitment came… Read More »Lessons from Anger Management: The Strength of Commitment
I used to make New Year’s Resolutions. Then I used to spend December reflecting and consolidating the year gone, ready to plan “thorough goals” for the new year. Then I stepped back, and chose a “Word for the Year” instead. Finally, I used a guiding word to ‘theme’ my goals for the year, broken into sections. But equally, I see all this “Forget the new year, it’s meaningless.” So I’m… Read More »Dealing with Criticisms: The New Year’s Resolution
I began studying the psychology of my own experiences in 2004 with a book on Psycholinguistics and one on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Since then, I’ve studied a bunch of qualifications, and have worked in social care, education, mental health and youth work fields. Yet, there are some ‘lessons’ you don’t fully comprehend until you’ve lived them. Mind-Training A few years ago, Christine Kane wrote an article about smiling after challenge, and… Read More »Happiness: The Truth about Self-help Tools
There is a culture of wanting ‘fresh starts’, usually focusing on making new choices. Most of us have experienced ourselves, or someone we know saying “oh, well I’ll start again tomorrow / next week / in the New Year” when that person has made a choice that does not fit in line with their overall goal. People have a few ways of describing behaviour, but today I want to think about ‘falling… Read More »The Myth of Fresh Starts: How to Stay ‘On Track’