October to December is always a grind.

Endless to do lists, looming deadlines and various loose-ends to wrap up…

And that’s just my Christmas shopping!

Throw work into the mix too and the last few weeks have been especially hectic.

Take last Wednesday.  I was stuck late in the office, toiling away, dreaming of mulled wine & mince pies when a few uninvited thoughts started to bubble up.

These were thoughts like:

“Why are you still here Tom?”

“Work are taking their pound of flesh tonight, aren’t they Tom?”

“You’re a mug working this late Tom”

“Is this really what you want to be doing on a Wednesday evening Tom?”

“You shouldn’t be having thoughts like these any more Tom”

And so on.

I could feel my stomach tense and my jaw tighten as these thoughts appeared. 

Thing is, I haven’t had thoughts like these in the office in a LONG time, even though they used to be a regular feature of my working life. 

So when they popped up last week it felt like seeing a long lost relative – strangely familiar and unfamiliar all at the same time.

Sadly these thoughts didn’t come bearing gifts like my relatives usually do.

But at least I could see them for what they were.

These thoughts weren’t truths about the situation, they weren’t facts about that evening, they weren’t reflections of what was really going on and they certainly weren’t based in any reality.

They were just thoughts.

Random, meaningless and fly-by-night thoughts. 

They stuck around for a couple of seconds and then….

POOF!  They were gone.

A few years ago, thoughts like these would've pulled me into a mental wrestling match.  They swirled around endlessly and drained me day after day.  And the more they gnawed away at me, the more trapped and defeated I’d become.

But not anymore.

I’ve got the Inside-Out Understanding to thank for that. 

Delving deep into the nature of thoughts, what they are, what they’re not, where they come from, where they go to, what they’re telling me and what they’re not telling me has been quite the game-changer.

If you’d like to explore the Inside-Out Understanding 1 on 1 and turn the volume down on your inner chatter, here’s where to go next:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com