Ankle Deep in a Puddle in High Heels!

How One Parent Modeled CRUSH IT! to Splash Out Her Own Negative Thoughts!

Marcie and her son Jason were hurrying through the rain to reach their car after attending Smashing ANTs After School Program.  Jason, a third-grader was enjoying the class while Marcie, his mom, was serving as parent volunteer.  As the rain came down harder, they broke into a run and had almost reached the protection of the family minivan when Sploosh! Marcie stepped right into a puddle, drenching her foot all the way up to the ankle!

“Yuck!” Marcie screamed.  “Why does this always happen to me?!”  “I can’t drive the car with a soaking wet foot!”

Then she stopped.  Talk about Automatic Negative Thoughts!  Just as Ms. Nancy described, those ANTs popped right into her head.  What would Ms. Nancy say in a situation where your foot is soaking wet from a puddle. She’d say “Crush It!”

“But that’s ridiculous!” she thought.  “I don’t like stepping in puddles! It feels gross! But Nancy said, Crush It anyway.”  “And,” she continued thinking, “If I’m going to ask my son to Smashing ANTs, I should be willing to Smash ANTs too!”  She also couldn’t help but wonder, if this stuff really works.

So Marcie tried it.

“I love rainy days!” she exclaimed.  “I love stepping in puddles!”  “I love the feeling of a wet foot!”  The whole thing sounded so ridiculous that mom and son couldn’t help but find themselves laughing all the way to the van.

So, instead of starting the evening feeling frustrated and irritated, Marcie was happy to share with the class, the following week, what a fun and bonding experience they had. “Wow!” she exclaimed to the class, “this stuff really works!” She told everybody how she was able to share a special, happy moment with her son and when she stopped and thought about it, a wet foot is trivial compared to the opportunity to have a good belly laugh with your child. This showed both of them that we really are in control of our thoughts and Smashing ANTs really works! 

Crush It! is a simple ANT Smashing strategy that uses positive, opposite thoughts to smash negative thoughts. Marcie remembered from Positive Power, that by thinking differently she would feel differently which would lead to better behavior and therefore better results, and that’s exactly what happened in this foot drenching experience.

Here are a few more points Marcie and Jason had learned about the Crush It! ANT Smasher:

• Crush it!  gives people the courage and determination to fight back against ANTs by knowing the ANT will eventually give up and go away. It teaches persistence and resilience. A powerful, yet simple technique!

• It’s normal at first, for you to believe the ANT is accurate and the positive opposite is not true. That’s why the ANT is automatically popping into her head. The idea behind ANT smashing is to retrain the brain to stop thinking negative thoughts, and start automatically thinking positive ones. This process also circumvents the negative downward spiral of thinking bad thoughts, which lead to bad feelings, which could lead to bad behavior, which in turn could cause bad results.

• It’s helpful to avoid words like “don’t” and “not” when saying the positive opposite. This is because our brains can’t picture those types of words. What ends up happening when using “not” and “don’t” is the child is inadvertently saying the negative phase to himself. So, instead of saying “I don’t mind getting my foot wet!” say, “I love getting my foot wet!”

• When using the Crush It! ANT Smasher, say the positive opposite with a lot of excitement! So Marcie and Jason chose to jump and laughed as they shouted, “I love getting my feet wet!” the whole way to the van. This choice helped them to turn the negative situation into a fun and positive one.

Nancy Sheain & Kathy Norton

Building Futures, LLC

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