The Power of a Reframe
A few weekends ago I went to Bournemouth and caught up with my friend Alice, who I worked with almost 30 years ago on a Channel 4 programme called ‘Love in the Afternoon’ presented by Antoine de Caunes. We had amazing fun, thank you Rapido TV & Channel 4!
Alice is now a university professor, and she told me about her Ph.D. One area she’s investigating is eco-linguistics, and she explained—top-level—that, for example, how we describe the weather affects our mindset about the day.
So, it’s raining today in London, and we could say, ‘Ugh, what an awful day. It's so wet and gloomy,’ and that would affect our mindset and mood for the day. On the other hand, we could say, ‘It’s rainy! Isn’t that great for all the plants, ducks, parched earth, new seedlings, what a blessing! The dogs are going to love all the puddles when we go for a walk’.
And this got me thinking about the power of reframing in our lives generally.
Words matter, the language we use has impact on ourselves and others: to inspire or deflate, to open or close our mindset, to get us going or stop us in our tracks.
Life in the 21st century is what Jamais Casio, futurist, called BANI - Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear and Incomprehensible. It’s complicated, ambiguous and unpredictable.
So, the power of reframing comes in incredibly handy.
Some examples? Well:
Replace ‘why is this happening to me’ with ‘what am I learning from this’;
Instead of defaulting to self-deprecation, default to self-kindness. This is a tip drama exec Justine Potter shared with me: ‘Reframing how I talk to myself to be as kind and uplifting as the most supportive of friends has changed everything for the better in how positive I feel about me and the world I inhabit’
Reframe your perspective, ‘I’m never going to make it’ to ‘what evidence supports that belief?’
Ooh and language, ‘pushy’ to ‘determined, passionate’
Once you get going, you will see there are limitless ways to reframe, and most will be helpful to you if you are feeling glooming or stuck in the mud.
I’m going to reframe ‘stuck in the mud’ to ‘handily given time to pause and contemplate!’
See how you go.
Take care.
Tracy
