Thinking Differently About the Holidays can Bring Back your Cheer!
Are your holidays going to be “bad” this year? Maybe, if you decide so.
However, you CAN think differently about the holidays if you WANT to feel cheerful!
How to Think Differently this Holiday Season
There is a tool called the Six Thinking Hats, created by Dr. Edward de Bono, that can help you think creatively for a solution that makes you smile.
De Bono believes there are six different directions our brains can be challenged to think. This type of thinking doesn’t come naturally, but it works as a solution-finding tool for groups or individual challenges.
“Wearing” each different hat, even for a short time, can cause a person to think in novel ways, potentially uncovering prospective problems and/or solutions.
First, Identify the Problem that Needs to be Solved
In this case, our “problem” is that you (or someone) is going to be unscheduled and alone over the holidays, which is not what typically happens for the holidays.
You can choose to feel like there’s nothing you can do about this… or you can decide that you won’t waste one moment or day or your precious life thinking about something you can’t change!
Get out of the victim mentality and put on your happy face instead!
Try on Each of the 6 Thinking Hats:
- Blue Hat: This is your process control or command system.
- White Hat: Focus on the facts, the available data. What information can you look at objectively, without emotions? Can you analyze what happened similarly in the past?
- Red Hat: Look at your problem considering your intuition or gut reactions. Think about your emotions and how others might feel or react, too.
- Black Hat: This hat gives the perspective of potentially negative outcomes. Be cautious and consider why your decision might not work.
- Yellow Hat: Think positively with this hat. Its optimistic viewpoint looks at all the potential values of the decision.
- Green Hat: Creativity abounds with the green hat. This thinking develops creative solutions.
Watch the 6 people in the video wearing their 6 colored thinking hats. Maybe this will inspire YOU to think differently, too!
Share your thoughts in the comments box below…
Will you choose to think yourself happy this year?
Did the 6 Thinking Hats help you to look at the holidays differently this year?
Do you need more positive thinking? Click here for another article on thinking positively!
This is great. A good positive reminder of how to approach the holidays.
I think this is great if it helps people. Personally, as someone who has lost my job due to my last hospitalization and the fact that I had to resume chemo, AND because I have so many passwords to remember, I have no desire to remember these hats and their purposes; the simpler the better for me. I wake in the morning, thanking God for the new day to live and I ask Him to help me to think thoughts, say words, and choose actions that please Him because I trust Him and I know I’ll have my best day possible. I cannot be bored – there are too many things to learn, books to read . . . and people for whom to pray, Happy Thanksgiving, with love.
I understand! I’m hoping the hats help someone in the moment… even if they never think of them again later. Thank you so much for your comment. ALWAYS appreciate your insightful perspective!
I liked the ideas offered. But we are already anticipating the digital options when Zoom and Facetime may not support the whole world of us on that one day. Our little family is already opting to find alternative times, which leaves us more alone at that magic hour of turkey dinner time. So I put new strings on my old guitar and I am going to play myself a concert — never mind the missed notes, and out-of-practice moments that used to be perfect. And my cracking ancient voice still remembers all the words to the old songs. No need to worry over the audience.
Goes to show we make our own happiness! I love thinking of your own personal concert event!
Hi, Kathryn!!
I just watched the ‘thinking hats’ video. Lots of great approaches on how to handle this unusual holiday circumstance. Your video really showed that it is important to step back and evaluate how you want to spend your time, whether it is wallowing in self-pity or being up-beat and creative. There were some really good ideas! Thanks for putting this together!
Happy Thanksgiving, no matter how you do it!! 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it! Yes, we can choose our own approach to thinking that’s best for us!!