Eva

Perfectionist rubber band

4 posts in this topic

In one of his videos about perfectionism Leo suggested monitoring one's critical tendencies torwards everything by having a rubber band around a wrist and snapping it every time a critical thought appears. I stared this morning and I've already snapped my wrist raw by couple hundreds of snaps. I never knew it was this bad. Ouch.

Do any of you suffer/have suffered from this kind of thing? Does it ever get better, and how does it feel when it does?

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27 minutes ago, Sahil Pandit said:

@Eva The act of snapping the rubber band isn't as important as being aware when you notice the rubber band. 

During the day, when you forget about the rubber band and notice again, just be mindful of your body, the thoughts you are having, how you feel, etc.

Thanks for your comment! And yes, I get that that's not quite the most important part of this exercise (and have since gotten a whole lot more gentle with the snap) :-D

Mostly I'm shocked to find out how often I actually criticize things. It's really ingrained in my psyche over the years. But I'm trying very hard not to be a perfectionist about this issue too, and realize that it takes a lot of time to start to unravel this.

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Whats really important to keep in mind is that we can become self aware of our thoughts. What we think about the most brings that same thing to us. So if you find yourself thinking critically about someone or something, just be creative, and think of another thought that's positive to replace it with. The more you dwell on supporting people, experiences, and emotions the more of those you'll get back in a feedback loop. Practice makes perfect!

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