Teach Your Mind to Listen to What Your Body and Spirit are Saying

“Teach your mind to listen to what your body and spirit are saying.”

Originally posted September 2015; Updated January 2024

Imposter syndrome is a concept that has flooded the cultural zeitgeist over the past few years. In an article on BetterUp, they define imposter syndrome as, “the condition of feeling anxious and not experiencing success internally, despite being high-performing in external, objective ways. This condition often results in people feeling like ‘a fraud’ or ‘a phony’ and doubting their abilities.” When clients bring this up in sessions, they often say they are flooded with thoughts that they are not good enough, that others will discover that they aren’t as good as they seem, etc. The negative self talk is taking over and causing a downward spiral.

In Sport Psychology, trigger words are used to help stop the downward spiral. Trigger words can be a single word or phrase that initiates a process or course of action. I’d like to go even further and say they can also be an object like a bracelet or necklace. Trigger words (or objects) can be used for negative thought stopping, as reminders to step back and refocus, so that you can shift towards positive self talk.

One of the most common trigger words for negative thought stopping is stop. However, when working with clients I like them to come up with words that hold more personal meaning. Maybe they are a Marvel or DC fan so using the name of their favorite superhero reminds them to focus on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. 

Try coming up with your own trigger words. Begin with just a couple and commit to using them for a week. You will find that using these words in addition to the other tools shared in previous blogs will help shift your mindset quicker than you think!