The start of the new year is always a time when we want to catch up on everything we didn’t do the year prior. We fill our schedules to the top and set to start ten new habits. However, there’s always a voice telling us millions of excuses and opinions. This mental chatter can be so loud it doesn’t allow you to think clearly.
Eventually, you get trapped in a loop of mental overwhelm.
This whole process is exhaustive, leaving you with little energy or willingness to continue working on your goals. In this case, Communication Coach, Rachel Randolph advises you to pause, stop looking outside yourself, and start looking inwards.
“Think about everything that overwhelms you, conversations you haven’t had, boundaries you haven’t established, and how draining it is to have an inner voice that doesn’t leave you alone because you don’t understand it,” says Rachel.
This is how to know it’s time to pause and tune inwards, and the beginning of the year is a great time to do it.
We need time to acknowledge what’s happened, what we’re doing, and what we want next. The beginning of the year is the best time to do this.
Rachel advises taking a pause and observing the space between a situation and your reaction. Sit back, and identify the thought: What are you scared of? What thoughts are overwhelming you? Are they rational? After a few moments of consideration, you will feel calmer and more capable of communicating appropriately. This is called self-regulating, a skill Rachel shows her clients to cope with their inner dialogue.
Learning to Self-Regulate to slow down and have better communication.
The first step is to understand your inner voice and how they relate to your emotions. What does your inner dialogue sound like? What thoughts repeat on and on in your head? What is the voice saying? Write one or two sentences with what comes up to help you gain clarity.
The second step is to learn how to emotionally regulate. Though it isn’t common, Rachel teaches her clients to incorporate a breath work technique called “box breathing,” allowing them to regulate their nervous system and establish a presence. Her clients learn to calm their nervous system through breathing, which allows them to calm their minds. A calm mind allows them to navigate emotional triggers and conversations with more control and calmness, allowing for more effective communication.
The last step, and the most important one, is to maintain it. She has generated extreme results for her clients because she holds her clients accountable for how they implement self-regulation daily. Week by week, Randolph shows them new skills, allowing them to improve their communication skills and implement the skills she teaches them in real-time. She believes in integration guidance, which makes her coaching the most innovative compared to another coaching.
The best method a person can implement to learn is to learn from life. Become aware of the sensations and feelings that fill your body through certain situations, what are you noticing? When your awareness grows, it’s important to be mindful that your mental overwhelm will too. When the thoughts come, do as mentioned in the first step. Become aware of them through writing or mapping, capturing the essence, so you have clarity, and taking confident action. The most powerful communication you will have is with a calm mind.
About Rachel Randolph
The first thing you must know about Rachel is that she doesn’t have a cure for your problems; 100% of this change is your responsibility. While that might be intimidating, it’s the most crucial aspect of creating sustainable changes to your communication skills. After 4 years of working with dozens of people from all over the world, she has built a framework to educate people on honing their communication skills through introspection, self-awareness, and self-agency over the changes. This unique aspect is what makes the most difference in her coaching. She not only teaches empowerment via responsibility, but how to be gentle with yourself as you learn to take responsibility for your communication. Taking responsibility for your communication skills is taking responsibility for your life.
The place to begin this transformational journey is by slowing down and knowing that the trajectory of your life is made through small decisions, it’s worth taking care of when making them.
