Feeling trapped, or wondering how you can cope with the latest curve ball life has thrown at you? Peter Doyle - principal psychologist at Guidelight - explains that if you learn how to change your thinking, you can change your world!

Every person operates at some level on automatic assumptions and limiting beliefs, that were formed at different critical times throughout their lives.

If year after year we neglect to consciously examine "how" and "why" we are holding onto our patterns of seeing the world in a certain way, we run the risk of limiting our potential because of outdated and irrational beliefs that are now no longer serving our purposes.

Worse still, a person can be unaware (blind to the fact) that they are filtering their world through an obscured lens of perception, where the context of their hidden assumptions is negative, fearful and isolating them from choosing better, new possibilities.

How Do You Cope With Change?

One of the consistent themes I have discussed with many clients over the past twenty years of private practice, is that it is inevitable that the external world around us will change (family, friends, health, finances, career).

However, if we do not choose to re-examine our thinking and consciously learn to adapt or let things go, then we become stressed, anxious, sick, unhappy and stuck in the rut of our limited lives –  metaphorically speaking the skill is to either psychologically “Adapt or Die” !

Much of my work as a registered psychologist, is to help people to develop multiple strategies in their lives to turn times of “apparent” failure, conflict and upheaval, into a self-development opportunity.

The good news is that the creative tension of unwanted and unexpected change in a person’s life, can actually be harnessed into new ideas and growth strategies using advanced positive psychology techniques.

It is also true that if a person is constantly finding they are repeating “groundhog day" and getting the same unsatisfactory results in their patterns of life, then it is necessary to choose to do something they have never done before, to get a different and better result into their future.

The first step to changing your world could be as simple as making an appointment at Guidelight, your Gold Coast psychologist clinic - because you are worth it !