Reframing: what it is, varieties, exercises and examples

“He went beyond what was permitted” - we hear this phrase when a person has done something contrary to generally accepted rules. But, as you know, there are exceptions to every rule. Sometimes you just need to go beyond. This method of solving the problem even has a name - "reframing".

The name comes from the English word "frame", which means "frame". Hence the word reframe is formed, which in various translation variants sounds like "insert into the same frame", "insert into a new frame". In simple terms, this is "change the frame". This method is often used in NLP. With its help, you can change the thinking or perception of an event, rethink it, change templates.

With the help of speech strategies, psychologists can influence the orientation of a person. The "steps" that the specialist will follow will be your behavior, complexes, fears. With the help of reframing, you can get rid of anxiety, get out of a depressive state. This is achieved due to the fact that the person begins to look at a traumatic or sad situation or event from a different angle.

First of all, the reframing method is widely used in psychology to relieve emotional stress, change behavior, activate personal qualities, and reveal creative potential. To do this, psychologists force the client to look at the problem or the question of concern from the other side, to find positive touches in the picture, which initially seems gloomy to the person. As a result, you will walk through life with your head held high.

Reframing is often used in management. The method is suitable when a business reorganization is needed or it is required to bring it to a higher level. Thus, the forms of management are changing, qualified personnel are being found, the potential of the team is revealed. The method is also suitable for bringing together large groups, forming in them a sense of responsibility and dedication to business and company. Reframing makes you want to improve.

Reframing also helps in sales. An experienced salesperson will always be able to persuade the buyer to change their point of view. For example, if a customer is waiting for a discount on an item, you can explain to him that your store already has the lowest price in the city. If an adherent of a popular brand has entered your newly launched department, you can convince him to buy from you when you explain that the company does not spend on expensive advertising. This means that, although the product is cheaper, it is no worse than that produced by a better-known brand.

Recently, the word "reframing" has appeared in education. Although used in this area, perhaps always. A good teacher, for whom it is important that the student understands the subject, will certainly offer him several options for acquaintance with the material... Does your child dislike chemistry? And if you look at this science from the other side? Take him to a museum of entertaining sciences, for example. After he sees a demonstration of various spectacular experiments there, he will most likely go to the next chemistry lesson in high spirits.

Reframing helps change a person's value system. But before using such a technique, a specialist must determine what exactly bothers you, and only then choose a method for performing this method. There are two of them.

Implies the impact of the word. The specialist will change the context of the situation that worries you. It will give it a new semantic meaning, tell you why this or that behavior is impossible or, on the contrary, suitable in each specific case.

Helps a person see a different meaning in what is happening. The accents change in his head. Attention shifts from a problem or even fixation on it to solving it.

Here are the main goals and objectives of reframing:

• removal of alarm;
• change in behavior;
• discovery of abilities;
• identifying opportunities.

The most famous and effective among psychologists is the option, calculated in six stages or steps.

• Step 1... We formulate and voice what worries us. We designate the problem in the form of a certain letter, number, or simply paint it in a certain color.
• Step 2. We are trying to start a dialogue with that part of consciousness that is responsible for this situation in life. Try to challenge her. It is important to determine how you will communicate with her, what you want to get, there will be enough definite answers like “yes” and “no” or you are waiting for some physical sensations in the body.
• Step 3... Ask this very part of you to tell what it is trying to achieve with its behavior. Offer her another, more acceptable solution to the problem. If you don't find one, ask yourself if your goal is actually positive.
• Step 4. We start a dialogue with another, creative part of ourselves. We set her the task of coming up with 3 alternative forms of behavior to achieve the goal. We transfer the received data to the part that caused us problems.
• Step 5. We sit down at the "negotiating table". We conclude a "non-aggression pact" and no longer touch the previously used methods. If your subconscious mind agrees to one of the proposed options, let it begin to apply these principles. If not, promise him to return to the old scheme, but only after he has tried all the proposed ways of doing business.
• Step 6. We are looking for enemies and allies.Ask the first part of the subconscious if there are parts of your being in the neighborhood that want to participate in the experiment. Ask about those that are against. Enemies need to be known by sight.

Cognitive reframing can help change the way you view events that you consider negative. You will begin to treat them more positively or completely change the way you look at them.

Most of us tend to exaggerate. That's why you need to learn to see delights even in the most unpleasant. Don't self-flagellate. Before you say that it is hopeless, try to find internal reserves, they probably are. In the end, a black stripe is always followed by a white one, our task is not to go astray under the influence of discouragement. Don't give up.

Think about what makes you aggressive. Try to learn how to stop her attacks. Are you annoyed by the fact that your more experienced colleagues are constantly teaching you something? Treat conversations with them as free lessons. Or, on the contrary, do you get mad at young stupid colleagues? So try to treat them like your little children - sooner or later they will be grateful for the lessons. Anger is not the best helper. Change it to mercy by changing your attitude towards what is happening.

Try to think logically. No need to substitute concepts, just find more positive explanations for them. For example, you are tired of endless business trips, but you managed to read so much on the way! Or you often change the environment, but this is good for the psyche, you are practically freed from household chores, you do not need to cook dinner.

Positive reframing is used to instill optimism in a person. A person who has lost meaning in life, he will help to find goals and go towards them. Here you should replace some concepts with others. For example, think of a problem as an opportunity to change something.

Find words to tame your unwillingness or inability to achieve anything. Instead of “I should” say to yourself “I want”, instead of “I really hope” - “I know for sure”, instead of “oh, horror” - “this is a chance to get a new experience,” and so on.

Many of us may feel that we are a whole bunch of problems, and all because we are not able to cope with some traits of our own character or some habits. Try to look at them differently. If you think that you are too demanding of yourself and others, then perhaps you have set the bar at a prohibitive height and do not want to lower it.

Do you think that you are too dry and emotionally stingy in relation to loved ones? But it may also be the case that you give them something more when you take the whole company to nature or buy your daughter the doll she dreamed of so much. You just do not speak, you do, and this expresses your feelings much more strongly than just words. Now you have already begun to smile, which means that reframing works.

If you decide to reframe your organization, then remember that you will have to overcome not only your fears and concerns. You have to defend your point of view in front of the team. So, stock up on words that will make even the most fierce opponents of reform helpers and allies. First, tell people the positive changes that await them, and only then move on to what will have to be done for this and what will have to be lost.

There are a lot of techniques showing how you can change your attitude to the situation and to yourself. Here are just a few of them.

This exercise can be performed without the help of a specialist. Take a piece of paper and write down 5 of your qualities that seem negative to you.Start each one with the words "I am too". For example, "I am too greedy", "I am too moody", "I am too boring", "I eat too much", "I am too serious." Now let's look at these qualities of yours in a different way.

We enter the result obtained in the adjacent column. You are not greedy, but economical, therefore, unlike your neighbor, you never borrow money before your paycheck. You are not capricious, but demanding, and as a result you always get what you want. You do not eat a lot, but tasty and healthy and you have no problems with appetite, as well as with sleep, by the way. You are not so much serious as you are ambitious and purposeful. Therefore, you do everything on time, unlike most of your colleagues.

You can do this exercise on your own, but it is better to organize such a game with a group of several people. The task of everyone is to come up with a positive epithet for a person, which is initially characterized negatively. For example, a "bore" does not waste time, clearly follows his goal, knows how to resist temptations. “Arrogant” is a person who knows his own worth, experienced, and therefore has the right to give advice, who has achieved a lot in life.

To do this exercise you need at least two people. One says to the other some unpleasant word, the task of the second is to quickly put him in his place. For example, let's say you were called fat. Your answer is "but men like curvaceous forms." Or you hear that you are lazy. The answer may be: "but I don't know what fatigue is."

Let's look at a few examples of how to apply reframing in your own life.

• Your boss is overly demanding... You are afraid of every conversation with him. Look at it the other way: consider the leader as your mentor, who, like the teacher in the school, strives to ensure that you receive the maximum amount of knowledge.
• You sat in one place, while your colleagues are running up the career ladder. But you do not stay late at work, but spend the weekend with your family.
• Even you yourself call your children robbers. They do not sit still for a minute. But they are unlikely to ever have complexes, they are not in danger of being overweight, they are more developed. And you help to acquire it.