Inclusion

Post by: Tracy Weaver, Life Coach, EFT Practitioner

Pssssst! Hey! Of course you! Want to learn a magic trick? This one is so simple, you’ll laugh when you hear it. This one tricks you into seeing contrasts differently, which changes the way you think just a little, which gets you to explore your habitual beliefs a little, and before you know it the way you’ve been feeling about life will quietly move up a few notches, which means you could end up a little happier. Not bad for a simple little parlor trick, eh? The best part is, nobody ever needs to know what you’re up to. Okay, here’s how it works.

Whenever you catch yourself saying “or”, try sticking “and” in there instead! Doesn’t sound like much, right? Well, I’m not saying it works every time, but when it does it’ll make you smile, and might change things up for you. Let’s see, some examples:

– We can go out to dinner or we can go out to the movies. -> We can go out to dinner and we can go out to the movies. (There’s that dollar cinema downtown and we can go out for vegetarian tonight, and maybe skip the wine until we get home. Ours is better anyway.)

– We can have burgers or salmon tonight. -> We can have burgers and salmon tonight. (Surf and Turf! I’ll just use half the amount of each. Then tomorrow I can make salmon cakes, and I can use the rest of the burger meat for spaghetti with meat sauce the night after. Wow, I just got the next three dinners solved!)

– I can go to college or do what’s expected and work for the family business. -> I can go to college and make my family happy and work for the family business. (I know I’ve read about people who have done both and still gotten good grades. Helloooo Internet! Who’s already got a blog going about this? Anyway, it’s not like I have to work for them forever. I can sort of gradually segue from the family business into whatever I decide I want to do. Anyway, I’ll be getting paid to help my family. That’s more than a lot of people can say.)

See what I mean? Once you get good at this, try switching “and” in for “but”. It’s a bit more subtle, but can still change the way you think about the contrast. Like this: “I want to write a blog, but I’ve never done anything like that before. -> I want to write a blog and I’ve never done anything like that before. (So what? Hmm, is there a blog about this? How about “Blog Writing For Dummies? Something on YouTube?)

If you want to really go for it, try swapping “can” for “can’t”, “will” for “won’t”, and “Sure!” for “No way!”, just to surprise yourself.

What’s the secret? You’re using inclusion instead of exclusion, that’s all. Have Fun!

-Thank you, Tracy for contributing!