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When we go through progress, we're bound to experience a multitude of experiences. From the end-of-day hoorays for a job well done to the push you give yourself to move out of your comfort zone— these are all things that signal we're doing something that our future selves will be hugely thankful for.
One of the things we're most familiar with when it comes to progress: learning and unlearning. This cycle reminds us about our boundless potential to be better. A reminder that we have pearls of wisdom to gain; that we have the humility to know that what we know now may not always be correct or good for us. These are all things that open the road to reframing.
What is reframing?
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By definition, reframing is redefining a problem or challenge. That is when we do the mighty trick of saying, "This experience is teaching me something," when we're facing a roadblock. It's when we pull ourselves from the face of adversity and ask what we could do to go through (or around) it.
While many situations definitely could be better or could be avoided, we don't always get handed the choice to skip it without being affected. Reframing allows us the golden opportunity to face it head-on, learn (or unlearn) something, and act upon it so that we could make it better for ourselves or others should they find themselves in the same thing we did.
It's a challenge. After all, we can't always put our brave faces on and feign positivity— and that's normal and okay.
While progress is an experience on its own and reframing is very much something that's part of it, the process of reframing teaches us something about progress. It teaches us that we have the choice to wield our power over what we can control and act upon it. It teaches us that we're capable of taking in a situation and seeing how we could turn it around to make it benefit us (or others.) Take cue from what we commonly experience as Women in Progress and see how we could practice reframing:
When it comes to our goals
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What happens:
You set goals for yourself and nod to your potential to be better, but days or months in, you feel deflated and demotivated when you don't see the results you expected
How to reframe:
Take those feelings in, and when you're ready, ask yourself what the situation is teaching you. If you feel like you're stuck on your goals, remind yourself that your bigger goals contain smaller ones. Maybe all you need is an attention shift to these goals, teaching you how to value each step that it takes and celebrate them, no matter how big or small that is.
When it comes to new territories
What happens:
You've found familiarity and comfort knowing what you can and can't do— so making giant leaps to uncharted territory leaves you paralyzed.
How to reframe:
Going out of your comfort can be a bit terrifying, but it could lead you to opportunities that our familiarity couldn't offer otherwise. When you feel like doubt or anxiousness overrides your senses when trying out new things, pause. Try to reframe the situation by asking yourself why you're in a position to step out of your comfort zone and what you can gain from doing so. What lessons will you be able to learn, and how will it make your road to your higher self even better?
When it comes to skin
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What happens:
Instead of embracing the skin you're in, you feel less confident and frustrated about how it looks or feels.
How to reframe:
Your skin is yours alone, and like you, it always has the potential to be better. Instead of feeling down about where you're currently at with your skin, try to think back at what worked for you and what didn't. Plan your next steps to set good skin free by taking those experiences, not as hurdles or telltale signs that it's far too late to work on better skin, but as ways on how you can find the right solutions that fit you and your skin goals.
Try out a space that understands this process all too well. With an approach that's all about simply bringing out the best in your skin by making it a place for every Woman in Progress®️, Simply Skin ensures every experience is for the books. Start on the right foot with consultations with nurse therapists that understand skin concerns and know which expert-crafted treatments to recommend. Our specialty? Making sure that our skin treatments take what you've learned, and what you have yet to learn, about skin and embedding it in simple, easy, and effective treats meant to set good skin free.
Learning how to reframe is something we could all learn to make sure our experiences just don't stay as experiences. It's one way we could practice our power to make things work for us and attract what we deserve— the best for our better selves.
Thumbnail from Live the Process and Some Brut Some Wax