I’ve found that having paper and pencil by the bed helps, particularly when you want to remember something as you wake up. It allows you to focus on your movements, not your thoughts.Īnother great approach to relaxing the conscious brain is sleeping. Just before putting your head on the pillow, ask yourself the simple positive question. Physical exercise helps quiet your brain. Almost always, after the activity, your mind will deliver the right answer. No scrolling social media! Relax by doing something that doesn’t require much thought but has you moving. When you do this, physical movement is key. In our example about school, the simple question is not, “How can I not worry about sending my kids to school?” or “How will I work if they’re home with me.” The right simple question is a positive one: “What can I do to make sure my kids get the best education right now?” Ask yourself a simple question about the problem when starting the activity. When we do a physical task, our subconscious mind can work, which makes decision-making easier. It’s hard to focus and think about an issue logically when our conscious mind is easily overcome by emotions and daily distractions. See if their plans for the school year help guide your thought process. Join a Facebook group, and search to see what other people are discussing. When evaluating education options and risks from COVID-19, share your concerns with your child’s teacher. Ask trusted friends what they’re thinking. Nearly every parent out there is processing what to do about school. Someone out there has had a similar problem, so tap into the wisdom of extended family and friends. When it comes to our children, there’s nothing new. Even though we can be sidetracked, if we don’t share our problems, we often miss other perspectives, relevant data and variables we may not have considered that can help us find solutions or flaws in our assumptions and general approach. Teams almost always come up with better solutions than individuals. The more people there are to talk about a problem, the more potential solutions there will be. Discuss the Problem with Others You Trust Now that we have a more approachable problem, how do we decide what to do about getting our kids the best education possible? Do we make a pro-and-con list? What if they come out even?Ģ. Which of those two “problems” looks more approachable? You can spend your time dealing with emotions, fears and unknowns or you can focus on the positive and productive opportunities. Writing the true essence of your problem down helps you focus on the most important part. What can we reasonably do to make that happen? We want our kids to safely get the best education possible while allowing us to work. However, when you write the problem you’re facing in one or two sentences, it may actually look like this: Writing the problem down forces us to turn an abstract thought into a concrete statement, idea or question. In that process, we can more precisely frame the problem and, ultimately, downsize it from a larger-than-life issue to one we can work through.įor example, if you’re a parent with school-aged kids battling what to do about your child’s education due to the risks and restrictions of COVID-19, these thoughts might be going through your head:Īll the competing emotions make the decision-making process difficult. The brain tends to mix up logic processes when dealing with complex or emotionally charged decisions.
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