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Spring 2011 - Catalyst! Newsletter
from Sue Cowan Coaching
Issue 14 | |
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Greetings!
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I have had a busy Spring so far, having decided that 2011 is the year of new professional (ad)ventures...
Committing to a year of working with a mentor coach; doing my 5 months training towards NLP mastery in London; developing a "Confidence Coaching" programme; joining the classic 8 week "Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction" programme (who would have guessed it is available here in Geneva!) ....nothing like some new experiences and learning to spice things up a little.
Given all the ""stuff" that's churning around in my head at the moment, I'm curious what the end result will be. Let's see as the months go by.
The mindfulness practice helps keep the balance and perspective......... 
One thing I have been revisiting recently is how the ideas from Positive Psychology are filtering down into everyday life. For example, the growing public awareness of the body of work on "happiness" (the British government has recently launched a national debate on how to measure the nation's happiness: the Office for National Statistics will be asking people what things matter most to them, to devise new ways of gauging the effect of government policy on well being and quality of life).
One aspect is optimism- the topic of the article this month. Hope you can enjoy the Spring sunshine where you are....and do send thoughts and prayers to those in Japan. Till next time, Sue You can email me at sue@suecowancoaching.com phone me on (+41) 076 2055 076 (office and mobile) or visit my website www.suecowancoaching.com where you can also read past editions of this newsletter via the archive.
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| Optimistic Outlook or Pessimistic Panorama? |
If he were to rate his life on a scale from 1 to 10, Bill would give the lowest possible score of 1
(" more like a zero, actually" ). His job gets more stressful by the day; he can't seem to connect with his teenage son. He and his wife have been arguing non-stop. And he is fed up trying to motivate himself to follow his doctor's warning to take more exercise.
Bill feels hopeless and his life seems empty and dark. Every setback reinforces his pessimism and his grim certainty that nothing will ever get better.
Martha's struggles look just as daunting. Her husband has just lost his job, six months after the birth of their new baby. She helps care for her elderly mother, who is becoming increasingly frail. The landlord has just increased the rent and, to top it all, her best friend and support life-line is moving abroad next month... Despite all this, Martha rates her life with a score of 7 and takes comfort from knowing that better times lie ahead.
Unlike Bill, Martha sees her setbacks as temporary obstacles to be overcome. To her, crises are part of life, and seen as opportunities to gain wisdom and experience.
Put simply, some people are optimists while others are pessimists. However, optimism isn't an accident - it's a skill that can be learned. And this skill can help us feel better, resist depression, and improve our lives.
Psychologist, clinical researcher and bestselling author Martin Seligman has spent 25 years studying optimism and pessimism. In his book, Learned Optimism, he states that pessimistic thinking can undermine not just our behaviour but our success in all areas of our lives.
"Pessimism is escapable," he writes. "Pessimists can learn to be optimists".
By altering our view of our lives, we can actually alter our lives, he says. The first step is to recognise our "explanatory style", which is what we say to ourselves when we experience a setback. By breaking the "I give up" pattern of thinking and changing our interior negative dialogue, we can encourage what he calls "flexible optimism". He believes that focusing on our innate character strengths (e.g. wisdom, courage, compassion) rather than our perceived failures will boost not just our mood but also our immune system.
Research has shown that optimists live longer (up to 9 years), achieve more, suffer less from depression and recover more quickly from illness.
So unless Bill can begin to change his thinking, his outlook on life may remain bleak and dismal, and he will be less healthy.
Martha, however, is likely to continue on to more satisfying and fulfilling years because she believes her life is filled with challenges and opportunities.
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How to become more optimistic
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An optimist sees the good in everyday life and minimises the negative aspects (there may be some genetic component, but everyone can increase their optimism).
Given that studies show that optimists are healthier and achieve more success and fulfillment in their lives, the good news is that pessimistic thinking can be changed, with a bit of time and effort.
If you want to begin to improve your ability to be an optimist, do the "Three Good Things" exercise for two weeks: go on, give it a try!
For the next two weeks, at the end of each day make a list of three good things (no matter how small) that have happened to you that day. Once you have identified these events, write down why you feel good about that particular event (and, yes, it is important that you write in all down. "Don't just think it, ink it!" as they say).
For example: 
1. Event
A toddler smiled and laughed at me as I sat on the bus on the way home
What is it about this event that feels good?
It made me laugh and I was reminded of the simple joys in life.
2. Event
I made the difficult phone call I had been putting off all week.
What is it about this event that feels good?
I was pleased at the way I stayed calm, and I stuck to what I had planned to say despite the other person's trying to persuade me otherwise.
Once you have completed the exercise every day for two weeks, reflect on
How has it made you feel?
What have you learned?
Optimists tend to think like this most of the time and don't realise this is what they do.
You too can develop the benefits of optimism if you continue with the exercise until you can do it without consciously thinking about it.
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Poem
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Smiling Smiling is infectious You can catch it like the "flu" When someone smiled at me today I started smiling too. I walked around the corner And someone saw me grin When I smiled - I realised - I'd passed it on to him. I thought about the smile And then I realised it's worth: A single smile like mine Could travel all around the earth! So, if you feel a smile begin Don't leave it undetected: Start an epidemic - quick - And get the world infected. (Author unknown; but thanks to Suzi Smith) |
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Video
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A 17 year old school pupil in UK recently won a national engineering competition. He designed a pair of jeans, with sensors woven into the fabric, that double as a drum kit.... Click Here to watch the BBC interview............. (3 min 20) |
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About Sue Cowan Coaching
| If you are curious to know more about what I do, or about coaching in general, then why not visit my coaching website
 Please contact me if you have any questions or comments.info@suecowancoaching.comTel. Mobile (+41) 076 2055 076 www.suecowancoaching.com
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