This blog was written by request by one of my mentors.
One of the things that can help when you are dealing with stressful situations or people is to do some visualizations.
When a person causes you stress, it can feel like they loom larger than you in your own life. And it can be hard to find different outcomes because you may feel boxed in.
I created the following visualization years ago when I was dealing with a stressful situation involving someone I had respected and trusted. At some point I might make a recording of this for you to listen to, but for now here is the written version.
Visualization
Think about the person causing you stress.
Imagine them being picked up by a claw attached to a helicopter.
Watch the helicopter take them out into the ocean and drop them into the ocean.
How big of a splash did they make?
Are they bobbing or did they sink right away?
Now zoom out on your view and see HOW big the ocean is in comparison to them being dropped in.
The ocean is huge and they are a lot smaller than the ocean.
Take a moment and appreciate the size of the ocean.
Slowly allow your view to shift back to the present.
Repeat this visualization until they barely make a splash in the ocean. By that point either they aren’t causing you as much stress or you allowed room for solutions on how to handle them.
For the person I created this for, it took several weeks before I could get her to not make a huge splash, but it continued to help me realize how much I was making her bigger presence in my life than she actually was.
Since then I have shared this visualization with others and they also have had great results doing this visualization.