The following Guest Blog was written by Carlene Bauwens, a contributor to the ADHD Awareness Book Project: Wacky Ways to Succeed with ADHD.
You have the best of intentions. You try. You don’t know what keeps getting in your way. You just can’t do it. You feel like a failure. So you tell yourself you are a failure.
Negative self-talk sabotages your thoughts and your day. When you have ADHD your mind churns with fatigue, useless chatter, sending you into a tailspin.
Tuning in to your own inner chatter is the first step towards changing your mindset. Shifting to the positive has surprising benefits.
Quite interesting for ADDer’s, positivity sends out more dopamine – the neurotransmitter that is either sluggish or sparse in the ADHD brain.
Positivity is literally, a natural dopamine booster!
According to a study conducted by scientist, Thomas Joiner who studies mood disorders, people who enjoy more positivity in their lives are more able to cope with adversity in an open-minded way.
Letting go of the negative allows more solutions and possibilities to bubble up.
The thoughts you think actually affect the action you take. Holy Moly!
You’ve heard this before, “Just be more positive.”
Easier said than done. If you don’t notice your thoughts, you can’t do anything about them.
“The Emoji Technique” gives you 3 simple steps to start shifting your mindset to the positive.
Here’s why “The Emoji Technique” works so well.
Specifically, the “face emoticon” emoji’s have the same positive effects on our emotions as when we look at a real human smiley face.
Emoji’s are cartoons. They are not well designed to convey meanness.
According to New York Magazine, 74% of people in the U.S. use emoji in messages.
They allow us to communicate without saying anything, saving us from spelling out any actual sentiments.
Emoji’s default is sincerity, a sincerity that is self-aware. When we send an emoji we are telling someone what we are feeling – naming an emotion, one that is generated by our thoughts.
We choose our emoji’s based on our awareness of our emotions and thoughts.
If we picture the emoji we would send in any given moment, then we are consciously choosing our thoughts and emotions.
Connecting with others even through emoji builds positivity.
The first step of “The Emoji Technique” is to
Notice Your Thoughts.
Your Action Item:
Every time you notice your thoughts, text yourself the emoji (or emotion) the thought resulted in. If you can remember the thought add that to your text too.
Sample Text: (Thought) I’ll never get this done. (Emoji)
At the end of the day, look at your emoji’s.
Were most of your emoji’s or emotions negative or positive?
You can do this exercise for several days. The more you do it, the more you’ll notice when your thoughts are dragging you down.
For instance, you hear your negative chatter of things like,
- “I got nothing done today.”
- “I’m not smart enough to get that promotion.”
- “I didn’t deserve to win that award.”
Use the power to choose your thoughts for good or bad. You hold the key to turning positivity on and off for yourself. You can choose to choose your thoughts or you can let your thoughts choose you.
Positivity doesn’t happen overnight. Use the 3 simple steps in “The Emoji Technique” to help you build your positivity muscle. The more you work it, the stronger it gets.
Enjoy your free copy of “The Emoji Technique” by clicking here.
Carlene Bauwens, ADHD Coach and parent, partners with those living with ADD/ADHD who want to make changes to start living confidently on their own terms.
