Times like These

This moment of crisis is challenging us to the core. It is difficult to think beyond the next hour. We are driven by our inner “autopilot” – our inner set of stored patterns and habits, from moment to moment. But will it help us to stay on our old path? Will our autopilot guide us well enough through these difficult times?

I am not so sure.

Our conditioned answers will not help to overcome our anxiety and our worries. This disruption, caused by COVID-19 requires new answers, new behaviors and ways how we process our thoughts.

This moment presents a chance to pause and reflect on what we need form our stored likes, dislikes and other judgments from the past. To see what our inner roadblocks are; to make us fit for a new paradigm, a different time.

We created the personality we have because we want stability and control. Will this personality serve us if the world around us is changing?

It is time to switch off the “autopilot” and take stock of what we need and do not need in our behavior “storage”.

How can I do this you might ask:

Begin by observing your patterns; stop processing them immediately and consider if they are still useful.

· Be mindful

· Be compassionate with yourself

· Change your perspective and let the attachment go

Do a “perspectiflex”, that’s bending your perspective extremely, and CHOOSE to see a situation 180 degree differently.

Start with little things and “believe what you see” and not “see what you believe”. Start your journey lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another you.

This disruption means for us a future without habitual experience and a present without orientation. Let’s play on what we humans do best in times of transition: Cognitive Flexibility and Cognitive Persistence. These allow us to make rapid switches in thinking between different ideas, and enable us to stick with the difficult task of stretching outside our comfort zone in order to achieve our desired change.

Switch your autopilot off!

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Write me: karl@schmidt-degen.de