Cultivate expansive accordion thinking when you are “stuck” in circular or black and white thinking.

Stuck emotions create dysregulation and need nuance and more context to move through. Expand your thinking with detail. Gather more nuance through expanding out possible likely scenarios by using your imagination. Think of this as air in the bellows. Can you add enough nuance to build insight and perspective? This is the sound and rhythm which is then used make music. Can you make beautiful music with emotional nuance?

Are you overthinking and living in the head? Adding more “air” to the bellows is nuance and detail. What you missed can help you understand the stuck emotion and gain the insight to move forward!

Not sure how to move forward when you are overthinking? Adding air is adding consideration for the steps in moving forward. When you know more your steps make sense and don’t feel demanding but supported. Air lifts and moves you with far less effort.

Ultimately, do you want to see your effect in the world? Moving forward lets you “see” the result of your ideas. It builds momentum simply by letting your ideas move outside you. Moments of emotional dysregulation can be “held” by expansive thinking, either your own, or that of a person you trust, which holds the power of what you are moving toward not just where you are. It offers nuance to see the steps you can take to move toward what you want while you acknowledge what is. Can you try to expand your thinking the next time your child is upset? Therapists can you offer this to your clients?

If you are already a paid subscriber and would like to see the video reach out to EliseJacobsonLICSW@gmail.com to receive the link.

I’m looking forward to seeing some of you at our Clinical Discussion next Friday November 7th at 3pm EST.