Ep. 91 | Concussion Chronicles #4: From Victim to Main Character Energy

Transcript:

Intro:

Welcome to the Life Boost with Amelia podcast where we're changing the narrative around what true health and success look like. They should give you energy, not drain it.

I'm your host, Dr. Amelia — multi-passionate integrative health and life coach, entrepreneur, and recovered burnout veterinarian.

Together, we'll explore the science behind how your brain and body work, including the unconscious mind, while also connecting with what your heart needs in order to stand up to the norm of feeling stuck on a hamster wheel—working hard yet feeling exhausted and not where you want to be—and instead live a life that makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning and in love with who you see when you look in the mirror.

The reality is if you do what everyone else is doing, you're not going to feel good. Let's break the norm.

Choosing Main Character Energy

Hi friend. I am going on my morning walk, so I am going to share more of the Concussion Chronicles. This is where I share how I coped and insights that I got from my concussion caused by a freak accident. Check out the first of this series to hear the full story. It involved a much slower recovery process than I had imagined.

I’m going through some of the posts that I shared on social media during that time. I had found that if I just wrote my thoughts on paper, on a post-it note, that was one way that I could share how I was feeling. And the post today is really short and sweet, but powerful. It says:

"This thing that happened to me is part of my story, but I get to choose how my character navigates this chapter. And I choose main character energy instead of the victim."

This was a really important reframe for me because the thoughts that we have and the way that we are narrating our life has such a profound impact on the way that we really experience our reality. And this reframe helped me to remain optimistic and empowered and to feel strong instead of powerless and like the victim.

The CTFAR Model

In the coaching world, there is this model called the CTFAR model that can be really helpful for breaking things down and troubleshooting when the way you're feeling, the actions you're taking, or the result that you're having is not aligned with where you wanna be going or how you wanna be feeling.

C-T-F-A-R stands for:

• C = Circumstance → Something that is just a fact. It's not negotiable, just something that happened or is.

• T = Thought → You have a thought about that thing that happened.

• F = Feeling → That thought leads to a feeling.

• A = Action → You decide to do something because of that feeling.

• R = Result → That action leads to a result.

I tend to add a step in this model and also add an automatic reaction between the circumstance and the thought, because sometimes we have an initial nervous system reaction to something before it's even like totally registered, and sometimes we are having a thought about a sensation in our body.

Why This Matters

I am sharing this with you because it really is so powerful to just be able to put something on paper, separate yourself a little bit from something that's feeling hard, break it down into little pieces, and notice: what is the step that's not working for you, and how can you adjust it?

Notice how simply shifting the thought that you have about your circumstances has such a huge positive ripple effect. When you choose a positive, empowering thought, that leads to a different feeling, action, and result.

A Practice For Today

So today, just observe the way that you're narrating your life, the thoughts that you're having about yourself, and practice replacing any unhelpful thoughts with one that feels so much more productive, compassionate, and empowering. And see what positive ripple effect results.

Sending you so much love, positive vibes, and energy. 💗