NOTICING, NAMING, ACCEPTING - BY FATIMA SHAHZAD

Change is inevitable in everyone’s life.

Along with the things around us, we, as humans, are constantly changing and growing. Sometimes, we find change to be refreshing and uplifting whereas other times we can find it to be unsettling or hard to accept. This is completely normal.

In this week’s blog I would like to introduce you to the technique of noticing, naming and accepting how we feel. In just these three simple steps, we can adjust and come to terms with how we feel about the change much more easily.

Step 1 - Noticing

In our everyday lives, due to being used to our daily routines, any time a change happens it can feel different. It can invite new feelings for us that we may not have experienced before. Noticing these feelings towards the change is the first crucial step that will lead you to accept how you feel regarding that change. To give this a go, I would like to encourage you to notice how you feel about a change in your life - this change can be as small as going to sleep ten minutes later each night to a big change such as a new job. I would like you to write down or reflect on what kinds of feelings you have noticed towards the change in your life.

Step 2 - Naming

Once we notice these feelings towards the changes in our lives, we can then give them a name. Giving the feeling a name will allow you to come to terms with the feeling as it will allow you to organize, describe and make the feeling real. This will allow you to form a connection with the feeling which will lead you towards the last step of this technique - the acceptance. For step 2, the naming, I would like to invite you to give the feelings that you noticed in step 1 a name - it doesn’t have to be a feeling that already exists for example happiness or sadness - you can name it whatever you would like it to be called. It is your feeling and yours to name.

Step 3 - Acceptance

Once you have noticed and named the feeling, you are now fully aware of your feelings towards the change in your life. To work towards accepting that feeling, I would like to encourage you to write down positive affirmations for yourself that allow you to feel at ease with that feeling. For example, ‘this feeling is completely okay’, ‘this change and the feelings that come with it will allow me to understand myself better and grow as a person’. I would also like to encourage you to embrace the feeling as much as you can without shying away from it. The more you embrace it and let yourself feel, the easier it will be to accept how you feel towards the change.