Procrastination is about emotional regulation and not laziness. It’s a way to cope with difficult emotions and negative moods around certain tasks. We can’t tell ourselves to just stop procrastinating, we have to rewire our brain to find healthier ways to manage the uncomfortable feelings of boredom, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, resentment, self-doubt and beyond. Counseling with Brainspotting Therapy can help people develop awareness and process challenging feelings.
“If you’ve ever put off an important task by, say, alphabetizing your spice drawer, you know it wouldn’t be fair to describe yourself as lazy.”
“After all, alphabetizing requires focus and effort — and hey, maybe you even went the extra mile to wipe down each bottle before putting it back. And it’s not like you’re hanging out with friends or watching Netflix. You’re cleaning — something your parents would be proud of! This isn’t laziness or bad time management. This is procrastination.”
“‘It’s self-harm,’ said Dr. Piers Steel, a professor of motivational psychology at the University of Calgary and the author of ‘The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done.’
“That self-awareness is a key part of why procrastinating makes us feel so rotten. When we procrastinate, we’re not only aware that we’re avoiding the task in question, but also that doing so is probably a bad idea. And yet, we do it anyway.”
“‘This is why we say that procrastination is essentially irrational,’ said Dr. Fuschia Sirois, professor of psychology at the University of Sheffield. ‘It doesn’t make sense to do something you know is going to have negative consequences.'”
“She added: ‘People engage in this irrational cycle of chronic procrastination because of an inability to manage negative moods around a task.'”
“Procrastination isn’t a unique character flaw or a mysterious curse on your ability to manage time, but a way of coping with challenging emotions and negative moods induced by certain tasks — boredom, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, resentment, self-doubt and beyond.”
Brainspotting Therapy with Elaine Korngold
I am a Certified Brainspotting Therapist and an Approved Consultant and would be happy to talk to you about Brainspotting. Brainspotting therapy accesses the genius of our deeper emotional brain. During the healing process I am fortunate to observe how intelligent, inventive, and intuitive all human beings are. Creativity is revealed through their resilience, survival, and recovery. The processing that occurs with clients focused on a Brainspot is deep, rapid, and unpredictable. During each session I wait for the surprise and I am rarely disappointed. Clients are able to process their emotions that cause procrastination and heal as a result.
With your focused vision and my attuned presence and verbal guidance, emotional Brainspots can be released in a gentle and non-invasive way. There is no need to be in chronic emotional pain. Please text or email me for a free consultation.