Friday, March 29, 2024

TWIGing to healthy thinking

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Look after your hardware in order for your software to function optimally was the key message from Healthy Thinking guru Dr Tom Mulholland at the recent Rural Professionals event at Lincoln University.
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The programme was organised by Lincoln University Future Leader Scholars, in conjunction with Farmstrong, to equip rural professionals in New Zealand with the tools to take care of their own well-being when faced with farmers who were under a lot of pressure.

Farming was a strange occupation, Mulholland said. Volatile weather patterns, fluctuating market prices and a lot of hard work should be a deterrent but he acknowledged farmers were drawn to the land and the unique environment they farmed despite adversity.

One of the greatest challenges facing people on the land was remaining positive and optimistic through the hardships.

Farmstrong was launched in June 2015 to raise awareness in rural communities about how to live well, farm well and get the most out of life.

It wasn’t just the people on the land who needed to look after themselves– rural professionals dealing with farmers under pressure also needed to take care of themselves.

The two-hour workshop attracted 60 rural professionals from around Canterbury. They were told “hardware” referred to their brain, and there were several things they needed to do to look after it:

• Exercise regularly

• Eat a healthy, well-balanced diet to fuel the brain

• Get plenty of sleep – the average person needs eight hours

• Have a good work-life balance

• Get regular health checks and know the numbers – blood pressure, cholesterol-HDL ratio, HbA1c.

Mulholland said the list might be familiar, but asked participants if they made a conscious effort to do the things to take care of their hardware.

“If we have all of these things in check then we are in the best position to have healthy, happy “software” (the mind) to get us through the trickier times.”

The ability to deal with stress and think positively was a function of the software, he said, and he suggested they use Dr Tom’s Healthy Thinking tools to train themselves to defuse tension, whether it was towards colleagues, friends and family, animals or themselves, and to not waste time feeling angry, stressed, disappointed or frustrated.

The TWIGing tool is used to remove the fuse from a situation using the following (simple) equation:

Mulholland broke the equation down into A E I O U and used an example from a farmer – “Gus” – who attended a recent workshop.

Aim – Goal: To drench the lambs

E – Emotion: Angry and frustrated with the lambs.

I – Initiating trigger: The lambs kept turning around and running past him, causing him to miss a few.

O – Outcome-consequence of the emotion: A few lambs were missed but the job was eventually completed.

U – Underlying thoughts: All the lambs hated him, they were out to get him and he was doing a terrible job.

Instead of getting worked up and probably feeling angry and frustrated for the rest of the job and maybe even the day, Gus could have TWIGed to put the problem into perspective.

True – was the thought true? Did the lambs hate him and was he doing a terrible job? No.

WI – was the thought worth it? Was it worth thinking that he was doing a terrible job? No.

Goal – did the thought help achieve the goal of getting the lambs drenched? No, he worked slower because he was angry and frustrated.

Once you have TWIGed, and if you answer NO to one or more of the questions, you can come up with some alternative thoughts.

Gus’s alternative thoughts were the lambs were just scared of him, and perhaps he could make the race smaller or get some advice about improving his technique.

If you answer YES to all three questions you need to change the trigger rather than change the thoughts. To change a trigger either A, B, C or D – Alert, Bypass, Change or Delete the trigger.

“Learning to use these tools and implementing them regularly will help you to improve your emotional fitness and be more productive with your time,” Mulholland said.

For more information about the Farmstrong initiative and how to use AEIOU and TWIG head to their website: farmstrong.co.nz.

Genevieve Steven is Lincoln University’s Farmstrong ambassador.

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