Should.
It’s a four-letter word in disguise, and I’m trying to remove it from my mental vocabulary. Its brother, shouldn’t, is also a culprit.
“I should take a walk.”
“I should do the dishes.”
“I should [be doing something other than what I’m doing right now.]”
When that annoying little voice in my head tells me whatever I’m doing isn’t good enough, it’s usually prefaced with a should or a shouldn’t. My therapist gets credit for noticing this pattern, but yesterday I decided to combat the shoulds with some cognitive redirection.
I’m going to reframe the situation when I encounter one of these words, taking a minute to think about what I need and/or want in that moment, rather than a knee-jerk reaction to my laundry list of obligations.
“I’ll feel energized if I take a walk.”
“I don’t feel like doing the dishes. They can wait.”
“Am I content right now?”
What I find most surprising is how much I have to correct myself during the course of a single day. The number of times I beat myself over the head with shoulds and shouldn’ts is kind of sad and astonishing — just think of all the mental energy I could save by not doing that.
Was it me who wrote this? I actually realized yesterday how many “I should be doing [this] instead of [this]…” I’ve been saying lately. Out loud AND in my head. I like the redirection.
Simple message with a lot of punch. I catch myself and go ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ … and change gears. Thanks for sharing.