This morning, I came to work from a Starbucks at the back of an office building. It’s such a buzzing and busy location.
There are back-to-back customers and delivery staff collecting orders at this store. It’s non-stop since I got here at around 10:00.
Reframing: An NLP Tool
Although I have a wonderful bean-to-coffee machine at home – which I got a the start of the pandemic – I love working from cafes. Let me explain why.
- I love being out and about, engaging with life and observing. I’m a writer and a very curious personality.
- I have annoying and noisy neighbors who are constantly slamming their apartment door. They also have an 11-month old baby so it’s noisy from around 7:00 am until 7:30 pm or 8:00. They never leave their place – even on weekends.
Now I could easily become frustrated with my current situation, especially that I will not move out of this building until I move to another country.
But since I’m an NLP-certified Life Coach, I have specific tools that I can apply to any negative situation.
Before these annoying and vulgar neighbors moved next door a few months ago, I had a highly civilized neighbor who was the complete opposite. He would leave at certain times in the day and close the door in a normal way – like we all do. I never heard his voice or felt his presence. Even when he relocated to another country, it was done in a well-organized and peaceful way.
That period also happened to be the time when I got back from a two-month Bali trip and I was spending my entire time in my apartment (start of a pandemic). Apart from the pandemic, I was mostly processing and integrating inner child therapy work that I had done in the winter of 2019.
Everything in life flows in the right way. All you have to do is trust the process and flow with it. Don’t resist it.
Looking back at the past eighteen months, I realize that everything happened at exactly the right time.
I managed to stay at home for most of the pandemic and to spend my time processing and integrating inner child work.
Then, when it was time for me to step into a new vibration, the Universe brought these noisy neighbors into my world so I can step out of my place and engage with the world again.
These days, I’m forced to go outside on most mornings and to work from cafes instead of the comfort of my home.
Instead of resisting the situation, I accept it completely. I go with the flow.
Because I can’t control my noisy and annoying neighbors, I control what I can – my surroundings.
This concept is called reframing in NLP. It’s looking at a negative situation from a new perspective and assigning new meaning to it.
My example is a simple one. But you can apply this mindset to any adverse or challenging situation that you might be facing today.
Additional Self-reflective Thoughts
Another thing that I want to add is that I started to go to coffee shops that are in busy locations or office buildings.
In the past, I would stick to small, cozy cafes that are located in residential areas or that are mainly hidden.
In those days, I was hiding and I wasn’t ready to face the world or to put myself out there.
My message for you is this: Honor your feelings and where you are in your spiritual growth journey.
Don’t judge yourself or try to do something that’s not aligned with how you feel and where you are.
When I felt like hiding in the past, I was simply hiding. I wasn’t trying to go to busy spots or to engage with the world. I totally honored how I felt and what I was going through at that point in my spiritual growth journey. And that’s OK.
It took me exactly eighteen months of processing the deep inner child work, before I could step outside of my ‘hiding’ energy.
I got back from Bali in early March of 2020. And from that time until a few weeks ago, I was avoiding the world.
Today, I feel grateful for the Universe for sending me these extremely annoying neighbors. Because if it weren’t for them, I would still be hiding in my one-bedroom apartment and avoiding the world.
My question for you today is this:
What adverse or challenging life situation can you reframe today?
Let me know in the comments!
When times are tough: NLP life coaching tips
