How to Rewire Your Brain

Over the years, a lot of our clients start working with us labouring under an initial misperception. They believe that an old and painful pattern of thinking has become so deeply ingrained that it is part of their identity.  Accordingly they mistakenly assume they will have to struggle indefinitely to ever feel confident to move past that limiting belief created from a past experience in their life.

Fortunately, in the Guidelight world of positive psychology, this false assumption will quickly evaporate. A client can be gently coached to reignite more confident and solution focused ways of seeing their world.

This powerful personal transformation is in part accomplished by literally rewiring aspects of the neural pathways in our brains. By learning to change the patterns of how we think, we physiologically change the functioning of our brains and accordingly positively change aspects of our identity and step into the world seeing more joy, fun and vitality around us.

Please enjoy this excellent two minute videoclip on the “Neuroplasticity of our Brains” to see how straightforward this process can be.

https://youtu.be/ELpfYCZa87g?list=PLGXzCM5c78jTXIA8jc3bqY7TAySb-pSqO

Innovative Staff Learning & Development Day

Congratulations to the 29 creative thinking team members from Brisbane based IT company Eyecon Pty. Ltd. Some of the participants are pictured here celebrating and strategizing with organisational psychologist Peter Doyle last Friday, as people enjoy an opportunity to focus on advanced communication and relationship building strategies while also relaxing barefoot on a lawn bowling green as one part of the day long workshop process.

It is valuable to be reminded that to inspire and develop the potential of your staff team, it can be useful to leave the office conference rooms and engage integrated outdoor physical pursuits as part of an embedded workshop process.

Fun in the sun can be one of the ingredients that helps sharpen mind, body and spirit among work colleagues within a learning and development framework that allows Guidelight Pty. Ltd to facilitate the engagement of rigorous positive psychology skills while people are at the same time, laughing, smiling and relaxed.

Eyecon Staff Development Day

Relationship Building – Important Strategies for Home life & Work life Success

It is not uncommon for each of us to become complacent and sometimes take for granted the interactions we have with significant other people in our busy lives.  Although we may intellectually understand the importance of seeing the world through another person’s eyes, often our clients identify that ( upon mindful reflection in the consultation room ) they have typically defaulted to responding to others as if on autopilot. As an encouraging reminder, listed below are some excellent areas to focus upon, when we are looking to improve the quality and depth of our interactions with significant people in our personal and professional lives.

Enjoy describing situations that you perceive differently from the other person without injecting blame or judgement or criticism of them into your conversation.  This will result in the other person not needing to become defensive or feel threatened, meaning they are much more likely to process your perspective and give you an open response.

Relationship Building - Strategies

Feelings

Explain the feelings that have been generated for you by that particular situation, without expecting/assuming that the other person must feel the same way about this situation as you do.

Focus

Focus on solutions and positive steps that you and the other person can collaborate upon and create together into the future, rather than struggling to make the other person adapt/conform to your own perspective.

Explore

Explore the positive consequences and verbalise the benefits for you and the other people involved in implementing the solutions your open conversation with them has generated.  You may also want to articulate the negative consequences in not adopting collaborative solutions and the risk of staying stuck in an old negative mindset or pattern together.

Encourage

Finally, go out of your way to choose words of affirmation, praise and encouragement for the other person in your communication.  This could mean that rather than highlighting a handful of matters that did not go so well with each other, you instead put a joyful highlight under one particular aspect of the relationship that is going well and build upon this as the focus.

Eating Well To Nurture Your Mind & Body

Increasingly in working to assist our clients with the best of mental health, we selectively invite people to also enjoy a consultation with our “Food Coach”.  The physical health and vitality benefits of learning to choose a better diet are of course obvious to most people. However, some of us are less aware of how much the psychological happiness, stability of moods and positive motivational aspects of our lives are shaped by the right types of foods we regularly choose to digest.    

[bctt tweet="So Spring into fresh in-season produce to nurture your body and your mind !"]

Living in Queensland means that we have a fantastic variety most of the year of many varieties of both fruits and vegetables.

Did you know?

Fruits and vegetables start to lose nutrients immediately after they are harvested, so the freshest produce is the best produce.  It also tastes better and is better for the environment.

So it makes sense to shop for in-season foods for you and your family, the other benefit is that it will be cheaper when in season.  We have all seen the prices of fruit and vegetables fluctuate throughout the year, so buying when bountiful will give you the freshest, tastiest, most nutritious and leave you with money in your pocket.  It is often quicker too if you are in the supermarket you will notice that most “specials” (in season) are grouped together at the front of the store.

Did you know?

Frozen peas will often have a higher nutritional value than the fresh peas in the supermarket.

When you shop for fresh fruit and vegetables ask:

• Where the produce has come from?
• Is it local?
• How far has it travelled to be in store?

Farmers markets are a great shopping alternative as produce is picked fresh by the farmer and sold directly to the consumer (no sitting on the supermarket shelves for days after days of travel to first the warehouse then to the store).

So what’s in/or coming into season NOW?

Apples, citrus fruits, papaya, paw paw, pineapple, avocado, tomatoes, silverbeet, spinach, artichokes, bok choy, asparagus, green beans, cabbage, cauliflower, leek, pumpkin, beetroot.

Spring Salsa Recipe

Chop: avocado, tomatoes, finely chopped red onion or shallots, squeeze of lime or lemon, fresh herbs if you have some (basil, coriander or parsley). Salt and pepper to taste.

Mix all ingredients together.

Use as;

Topping on sourdough toast (great breakfast choice)

Filling in an omelette

Accompaniment (for fish, chicken or steak)

Entertaining (serve as a dip with rice crackers)

Wrap it (wholegrain wrap for lunch/dinner, add protein of choice and fresh spinach)