Reframing these common thoughts will improve your mentality.
Sometimes we have to do things we really don’t want to do. Like, make dinner… again. Or clean up dinner… again. These are things that make a house hum, but doing them can get monotonous.
Jessi Berger shares a technique she uses in her daily life to reframe the brain, and in turn, improve her perspective.
How to Reframe the Brain
“Reframing is simply just changing your focus. That’s all it is,” Jessi explained.
Jessi shared an example from her daughter’s dance recital. “My first thought was, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so tired. I don’t really want to go.’ It didn’t feel very good. It felt negative in energy, but when I stopped and thought about it and reframed it, then I thought, ‘You know what? I want my daughter to feel supported in the things that she loves.’”
She continued, “Doesn’t that feel so much better? The timing is the same, the activity is the same, I’m doing exactly what I was doing before, but I’ve reframed it so that it feels better to me.”
Why Reframing is Powerful
So why is it so powerful for us to change that mindset? “It can change everything, right?” Jessi said. “It’s really powerful because instead of focusing on the short-term discomfort that you might have doing an activity, you change your focus so that you are looking at the long-term satisfaction that you get out of it.”
She added, “The short term is, ‘I don’t want to go. I’m tired.’ The long term is, ‘I want my kid to feel supported. That’s important to me.’ Just shifting that focus from the short term, uncomfortable feeling you might be having to a long-term satisfaction makes all the difference in the world.”
Reframing Examples for Back to School
As our kids go back to school, Jessi shared a few timely examples of how we can help our kids reframe their minds.
Homework
When they say, “I hate homework,” Jessi suggested focusing on the long-term satisfaction. “They love feeling like they did well on a test. They love that satisfaction of like ‘I’ve learned something. I know more than I knew. I did really well.’ It builds their confidence, so that’s what we need to focus on.”
Waking Up Early
For kids who don’t want to get up early, Jessi advised, “Don’t you feel better though, when we have time in the morning? When it’s a little bit leisurely? The stress level goes down. We’re not racing through the door. Mom’s not yelling at you. That’s where we want our focus to be.”
Feeling Left Out
For kids who worry about feeling left out at school, Jessi suggested focusing on the social skills they’ll build. “Our kids need to practice social skills. What better place to do that than at school with a bunch of kids you don’t know? As they practice that, they’re going to get better and those skills are going to get stronger.”
Find more advice from Jessi on Instagram, @timemanagement4moms.
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