Change Your Perspective With This Simple Mental Exercise

I've been holding on to a special trick that I use a lot, and I just realized the other day that I need to share it with the world! It's too good to keep to myself. It's an incredibly simple mental exercise that will change your perspective of people and hopefully result in a more optimistic outlook on people and life in general! So, here it is....

Imagine the Person You Are Dealing With As A Child

Attribution: RIA Novosti archive, image #811640 / Vladimir Fedorenko / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Really!? That's it!? But no, I'm serious, try it. The next time you are in a store and overhear a rude customer, or hear a mother reprimanding her child in a not-so-patient voice (we've ALL been there!) or witness pretty much any annoying or unpleasant behavior.... Imagine that they are a child. Suddenly they don't seem so awful. I'm not saying this will make you suddenly understand this person, or think they are amazing or anything. But this exercise does give you just a little bit of perspective. These are the reasons I believe it works:

• It acknowledges childish behavior in a way that makes it seem less threatening to your personal bubble. Suddenly, this person is behaving like a child. Guess what? If someone is being rude, it can kind of bring me down and take a little bit of joy out of my day. But in most cases, a child behaving this way is a lot less detrimental to your overall mood. (Unless it's your own child - that's a different story!)
• It gives you a little perspective on why they might be behaving that way. This person WAS once a child, weren't they? When you imagine the person behaving this way as a child, the wheels start to turn and you can see how this person may have reacted to an uncomfortable or discouraging situation when they were a kid. We all learn coping mechanisms as we grow up, but sometimes certain situations just put us over the edge. Realizing that this person may have been pushed a little too far, and that they are reverting to their childhood techniques for handling the situation, can help you to understand that their behavior might be more of an impulse reaction than a well-thought response to what is happening.

This technique can be used in all kinds of situations! Maybe you are working on a team project at work or at school and someone is being less-than-civil. Perhaps you are witnessing some straight up horn-honking road rage. The possibilities are endless! There are crazies all over the place! :p

 Of course, there are some situations that this won't work in. Obviously seriously harmful behavior may require you to call the authorities or get the hell out of there, like physical altercations or threatening behavior. But for dealing with unpleasant personalities, in general, it works!

 Finally, I encourage you to do this in positive situations, too! It is really fun to imagine your parents, grandparents, teachers, and other people you already know pretty well as kids. For example, my step-mother is just the most sweet, thoughtful person. Like, when my family goes to visit her and my dad, from the moment we arrive to the moment we leave, she is asking if we need anything, if we'd like to go do this or that, even handing us brochures and pamphlets for local area attractions that she has been strategically picking up over the last month in preparation for our arrival. I once found this slightly annoying and overbearing, but once I pictured her as a child, this behavior is now super cute and adorable to me, and I'm laughing just thinking about it. Give it a shot, and enjoy the the positive (and sometimes hilarious) results!

Just Start Moving!

Hi everyone! So this morning, I sat watching my daughter play while I contemplated what to do with my day. I originally had plans for the weekend, but they fell through. I am currently doing the 21 Day Fix, which is one 30 minute workout a day. There is also an option to do a doubles round, where you do two workouts a day. TWO!

In a perfect world, I could do two 30 minute workouts a day. I would do one mid-morning, and one mid-afternoon - one would be cardio, the other focused more on building muscle. But you know what? I KNOW how my days go, and that simply isn't possible. With a one-year-old who has an attention span of 2 minutes max, a dog that wants to go outside constantly, a work-from-home job where I'm never getting enough work done, house work, phone calls.... the list goes on and on, but there is just no way I can get more than one scheduled, 30 minute workout in. It isn't just time, it's the routine - or really, the lack of routine.

Nonetheless, I know how much energy it gives me to do my 30 minute workout in the afternoon, and I could really use some of that energy in the morning! 

FINALLY, I realized - umm hello, I don't need to do a full-length workout video to get in a little extra activity in the morning! I should just start moving! 

As my daughter continued playing, I knew that in 10 minutes she would be ready to eat, but I could do SOMETHING in 10 minutes! So I just stood up, and started moving! 

High knees....
Lunges....
Squats....
Side punches with 5lb weights....
Bent over rows with 8lb weights...
Jumping jacks....
Plank...
Fire hydrant kicks....
Push ups....
Aaaaaaaand finish it all off with a quick stretch!

JUST START MOVING! Do whatever comes to you. Start with a cardio move to warm-up your muscles so you don't injure yourself, but beyond that, it is YOUR workout! It's spontaneous, so if you get interrupted, you won't get all frustrated that you can't finish. It will give you ENERGY and make you FEEL BETTER! 

Go kick today's ass!