Here is a really simple guideline for mind-body connection: Act Within The First Five Minutes. What does this mean? If your brain, your conscious mind, your creative, logical part of you, gives you an idea, act on it. After five minutes of pondering, it is most likely that you will not carry that thought into action. Which means that your body has not connected to the thought and most likely than not, fear has seeped in. The thought has remained a thought.
I have taken the witty, yet very insightful coaching tips by Mel Robbins to spark some adventurous changes into my personal life and my practice.
During 2021 I moved to Mexico. While everyone around me felt fearful and constrained in their New York City apartments, I took a plunge and moved to Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo. In fact, taking plunges became a way to implement the five second rule Mel Robbins talks about in her book under the same name. A very clear example of this rule is when you are about to jump into a watering hole. I found many of these along the Riviera Maya in Mexico. Once standing behind the person jumping into the cenote, ancient caves, the five second rule begins. Of course, if you think about it too much you won’t do it.
Now, applying this rule which I amplified to five minutes from five seconds, has changed my life around. As a psychotherapist, a part of me looks out for impulsive behavior which many of my clients take to turn this five second rule to justify impulsive buys, etc. In five minutes though, you allow the idea to come up, and before fear is welcomed in, you have enough time to open your phone and begin writing that article; book a yoga class; book a therapy session…
As a therapist and coach, the exciting thing for me is to explore what exactly happens when actions are not taken within those five minutes. For many of my clients the voice sounds like: “But what if I don’t make enough money? What if I fail? or What if no one comes?” And here is where my work begins. Solutions will be found to money, worth, and self-esteem struggles, that is guaranteed. The other half of this equation, the action part, is on my clients.
I am lucky to be in the presence of my client’s magnificent ideas day in and day out. Yet, on the days that those ideas turn into beautiful real estate purchases, or career, and relationship moves, we all win. This five minute process helps me to look more consciously at my own ideas and quite frankly, even with anxious excitement. When we get into this five minute rule process, one can see the idea pop up, and then immedately hear one’s own heartbeat as the five minute countdown begins.
My five minute actions lately range from taking that 7AM pilates class to switching my practice’s online scheduling system. No move across the ocean again, just yet.
So what turned out of that great idea you had a year ago? or that business you opened an LLC for and never went anywhere? and that note in your phone that promised the world to change your life around if you came out unscathed from the pandemic?
Comments