Ownership: Better for your work and health

Ownership comes when you start doing things. You do something yourself and that already makes it yours, but it goes beyond that. The things you have, for example, you see as something you do too

What is ownership?

Ownership literally means you own something. For example, you own a house or something.

Mentally, ownership is another thing. For example, you feel ownership of the work you deliver or the things you do. You feel ownership of the successes at work, but also ownership of the things that don't go well.

So can you do the same with your health. You take ownership of your body and mind when things are going well. You can also take ownership when things are not going well. This means that you then go and see for yourself what works for you to still get the best out of your life.

Ownership: having and doing

For example, you are holding something and you can let go of it. For example, when you grab a glass or have a book and put it away again.

There are also other things you can’t literally grasp, such as motivation. It seems like a tangible thing, but you can’t actually hold it.

It may seem like something you either have or you don't, but ultimately you motivate yourself or get motivated. Surely it is more of a verb than a noun.

They have made a process to a thing. You have to do something for it, after all. Inspiration may happen to you, but you still do it yourself. You get inspired, so you do something.

The idea that you are doing something for yourself gives you ownership. This gives you ownership of what you do, whether it is something good or bad.

Motivation, depression, compulsive behavior, anxiety, or ADHD—you can’t quite put your finger on them, but you can say in a way that you’re dealing with them. This might not feel like it, because you’re acting this way subconsciously rather than consciously.

You act busy, you get distracted. So how do you do it? For example, I know people with adhd and then I ask if they are ever focused. Yes they are, then they can get all worked up about the subject. So apparently some people with adhd are especially distracted when they don't care.

Then you find out that there are a few things you like and the rest don't interest you. This is true for many people, just think of the 80/20 rule.

Most of the things we do may not make sense, or we don't think are very important. Yet we do them.

Someone with adhd doesn't feel like doing something, is immediately distracted and doesn't do it. That person may also have a better sense of what he does or does not want to do. So this is actually better.

This starts with ownership. I once helped someone with adhd and when he figured out for himself what he was doing now he changed all sorts of things. He changed his diet, he focused more on things he enjoyed, and now he no longer does adhd.

All by taking ownership of his adhd. He even stopped taking medication for his adhd.

Getting help after ownership

This seems easier said than done. But if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Just like eating healthy and exercising. None of this is simple.

In that regard, it’s much easier to say you have a problem and can’t do anything about it than to take full responsibility. That’s easier than taking ownership.

There's nothing you can do about it

Is that even true? Of course you can't help it if your brain has developed differently or if you're out on a limb. This is just what it is.

Still, it’s tricky to say that there’s nothing you can do about it, because that implies you don’t have to do anything. Then you end up blaming your problems on ADHD, for example, or on the loss of a limb, or on your depression, or something similar. Or even blaming your parents—saying it’s because of your upbringing or your genes.

By taking ownership, you can start to change.

Now you may be wondering how? The great thing is that you don't have to do this on your own. You can always ask for help to live healthier. I also have my group of friends, coaches and my crossfit box, so I don't have to take the steps on my own to do what I feel I need to do. Those things can help you tackle things differently than you've done so far.

That way, you make yourself better. You can also go to a doctor, they treat you, they help you that way, so you have the greatest chance of healing yourself. There you get advice and by carrying it out you heal yourself.

By taking ownership and saying "I do," many things can happen that will help you heal yourself.

Also check out this video on ownership:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnbaMp_1O3U

Ownership and health

Not only with mental problems, ownership can help you take steps to improve your life anyway.

For example, for people who do not feel the connection to limbs that for some reason no longer respond well, the sense of ownership can be generated by a kind of robotic hand that can still be controlled with the brain.

This is important for researchers who have used this to find out that feelings of ownership in the brain cause all kinds of activities[1]. This is very interesting because you can also use hypnosis to stimulate all kinds of activity and even inactivity in the brain.

When you look at sports, losing a sense of ownership can cause children to quit, for example. This can be the case when they play soccer on a poorly performing soccer team or when parents put pressure on the child[2].

Ownership and work

Feeling a sense of ownership at work is also important. Do you feel like the company you work for is “yours” in some way, even if you aren’t the owner? If so, this can help you feel more satisfied with your work, feel more connected to it, and even gain more self-confidence[3].

Strengthen ownership

The first important tip for strengthening feelings of ownership is to say you are doing something instead of having something. By doing so, you take ownership of your own health.

In hypnosis, taking ownership of your emotions is an important part of making hypnotherapy successful. Especially when gestalt therapy is used.

The person under hypnosis is made aware, through suggestions, of certain emotions and beliefs related to the problem. This also helps you accept that you are taking action yourself and that you have the power to change things on your own. This even helps you let go of inner conflicts[4], which is necessary to move forward in your life.

This may also mean taking more ownership of your memories. Some people remember things about their lives as if it happened to someone else[5].

Another way to take ownership of your memories and the rest of your life is through regression. With regression, you go back to a moment in your life that prevents you from doing certain things even though you want to do them. While under hypnosis, you recall the moment when a particular belief arose that no longer serves you.

Next, you start doing something with that memory. Because often it was a moment in your life when you were a child and then that moment just happens to you. You interpret it with the knowledge you have then. With regression, you go to that moment again and interpret it again, but with the knowledge you have as an adult.

You show more ownership over the event. For example, by empathizing one more time with other people who were there or by completely changing the memory in your mind.

This can be enough to change beliefs about how life works and how you can function. In doing so, you often free yourself from obstacles and can take real ownership of what you do and how you want to do something.

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Sources:

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945216302751

[2] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Witt5/publication/326910870_Why_ChildrenYouth_Drop_Out_of_Sports_-_Journal_of_Park_and_Recreation_Administration/links/5bf058394585150b2bbdd454/Why-Children-Youth-Drop-Out-of-Sports-Journal-of-Park-and-Recreation-Administration.pdf

[3] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/job.249

[4]  https://www.londonhypnotherapyuk.com/publications/Gestalt-Therapy-Paper.pdf

[5] https://philpapers.org/archive/KLELFO-8.pdf