Take a closer listen…

Emotions run high during times of stress, unfortunately, not everyone has good communication skills. It is important to understand why those around you may be dealing with stressors differently than you.

Take a look at the different Ego Defense mechanisms you or others may be employing to deal with current events.

---

1. DENIAL: The refusal to accept reality or fact.

Example: People refusing to isolate post travel.

2. REPRESSION: blocking unacceptable thoughts, feelings or impulses.

Example: Temporarily stepping away from all social media accounts.

3. PROJECTION: Putting undesired thoughts, feelings, or impulses onto someone else.

---

4. DISPLACEMENT: Taking your feelings or impulses about one person and putting them on another person or object.

Example: Having a fight with your friend when you’re frustrated by an unrelated matter.

5. REACTION FORMATION: A situation where a person saw their true feelings or thoughts to be unacceptable and reacts by taking the opposite stance.

---

6. RATIONALIZATION: Changing your view in the face of a new reality.

Example: Changing your views as we learn more details about COVID-19. Last week you were not practicing social distancing, this week you are.

7. SUBLIMATION: Channeling unacceptable impulses into acceptable ones.

Example: Jogging to burn off negative energy.

8. REGRESSION: Reversing to an early stage of development in the face of unacceptable thoughts, impulses, or circumstances.

---

9. INTROJECTION: This happens when a person takes on the ideas or voices of other people .

10. IDENTIFICATION: This occurs when a person changes facets of their personality to be more like others.

11. COMPENSATION: This occurs when people overachieve in one area to make up for failure in another.

---

Ego defense mechanisms at work.

These sometimes-ugly reactions can appear at work. The thing to remember is that ego defense mechanisms are unconscious ways of dealing with stress, so when you recognize them in others, don’t take it personal! Instead, show them you understand their fear and your relationship will grow.

EXECUTIVE SPA GROUP

Beauty Industry Resource Centre

If 2019 was a tough year for you, don’t worry, a new decade is here! No matter the challenges of last year, we’re here to share with you the recipe for happiness and satisfaction in 2020. In this post, we hope to shed light on the subconscious mind and how it dictates your luck through mental models.

The New Year or birthdays are a great time to reset your thinking because it provides a memorable timeline to help you measure your progress.
Whether you know it or not, you practice mental models in your everyday life.

What are mental models?

Mental models are a collection of thoughts that make up your subconscious attitude.

Over the years and unbeknownst to you, your mind has been creating mental models as a result of your childhood experiences and your perceptions as an adult. Subconsciously, your mind uses the mental models it created to anticipate the results of an event or decision, and also to reason and explain your choices, good or bad.

Let’s look at some examples of mental models. Do any of the following phrases sound familiar to you?

▸ I can’t”
▸ “Why speak up? It won’t make a difference”
▸ “If I want something done right I have to do it myself”
▸ “I don’t care”
▸ “I have no time”
▸ “What’s the point?”

Can you think of a time when your mental models influenced a decision you made in the workplace?

Examples of mental models in the workplace sound like this…

▸ “Seniority rules”
▸ “We can’t be all things to all people”
▸ “Don’t rock the boat”
▸ “Who do they think we are”
▸ “We don’t have the resources”
▸ “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

But how do mental models influence luck?

The Law of Attraction is the theory that you attract positivity into your life by having a positive outlook on life. The premise is that you can think or speak something into existence. Sounds like hocus pocus right?

There’s a psychological explanation to this theory. Most people understand this theory to work with the following formula:

A leads to B, where “A” represents your “positive” thoughts and “B” represents your reward

However, the Law of Attraction has much to do with you mental models. The law works under the belief that positive mental models allow your brain to recognize when good things are happening to you in life. In other words, your brain’s “radar” is turned on to see opportunities and possibilities as “luck”.

So it’s not that you “attact” something that wasn’t there before, it’s that your mind attributes a positive emotion (gratitude) to a particular event or experience that is happening to you anyway. When you reset your brain’s mental models, this creates a self-feeding cycle of proof for you that good things do happen to you, no matter the size or significance of event or experience.

Examples of positive mental models are:

▸ “I can do it”
▸ “People are fundamentally good”
▸ “We all have our bad days”

Mental models impact behaviour and can either help us achieve our goals or block us from achieving them. Don’t feel bad if some of your mental models need some rethinking- they live in our subconscious where they lurk until we shed a spotlight on them.

How can we change our mental models?

The first step is simply to be aware of your thoughts. Next time you come across a challenge, identify the problem in order to plan a solution.

Planning and organization is the best way to overcome things that scare us. Once you have a plan in order, put it into action and observe the results for future reference. This in turn will recalibrate your brain’s mental models.

Self reflection

When good things happen to you, do you see them as a blessing, or just dumb luck?

---

EXECUTIVE SPA GROUP

Beauty Industry Resource Centre