Do you find that sometimes you are caught in a trap of black or white thinking? Black or white thinking is also called binary thinking, but let’s keep the colors, because it will really help later on.

Black or white thinking looks like this: you only have two options, and usually it’s just yes or no; right or wrong; good or bad; happy or not.

Black or white thinking happens A LOT when you are in overwhelm, or stuck in struggle, or exhausted by microdrama. You’re paralyzed, because you think you have to pick the RIGHT answer (as if there were only one right answer!)

It’s natural. You’re brain is trying to help you get out of your stuckness by narrowing down the options. Your brain thinks that if you only have two options, it’s easier to decide. It doesn’t matter that neither option really is the right answer. It’s natural, but it isn’t really good for you. Like cocaine – I mean, it’s natural but….

I was working with one of my most favorite people, who had a tendency to fall into Black or White thinking without being aware of it. She was stuck, and had a really hard time seeing options. We tried adding in some shades of grey, but that just didn’t work.

It was time for ORANGE THINKING!  Orange just happened to be one of her favorite colors.

Orange is hard to miss. It’s explosive and bright. It sticks out.

If you google orange, you get “joy, warmth, heat, sunshine, enthusiasm, creativity, success, encouragement, change, determination, health, stimulation, happiness, fun, enjoyment, balance, sexuality, freedom, expression, and fascination.” Orange is also the color for healing the timeline, rewriting the past, changing your story and finding your bliss.

That’s a lot of options! And did you notice? Creativity is right there near the top!

When you’re stuck, look for the orange idea. Intentionally. Randomly. Lovingly.

Read the p.s. stuff!

And remember: in all things – progress, not perfection!

*****

p.s. Asides, disclaimers and notes:

Yes, of course, any color will work. You can pick whatever color you like! There is a whole language of color, and I think I’ll follow up on this in a couple of weeks. I believe we can each use our color language to creatively think up the answers to our own puzzles.

If you google “orange thinking” you are gonna get a bunch of crap. Ignore it. These concepts are not affiliated with any of that stuff. Neither am I.

I’m not talking about race when I talk about black or white thinking, but you know what? Polarizing humans into only two categories is not gonna get us out of institutionalized racism – or any ism. So yeah, let’s throw the rainbow at the whole human race.

What colors would you love to think? If you’d like a coach to help you, send me an email and we can set up a time to talk: maggie@maggiehuffman.com