The Power of Imagery: How Two Hats Helped Me Manage Stress and Stay Focused
Posted on April 13, 2023 by Christine Dunning, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
Learn how to manage stress with the "hat trick" technique, which involves switching between two imaginary hats to change focus quickly and decompress.
One of my favorite tricks for de-stressing is something I call the hat trick.
You probably know the phrase “hat trick” from the sports world – it’s a set of three accomplishments, like goals, in quick succession. It comes originally from British cricket, when a bowler would retire three batsmen in a row. His organization would literally buy him a new hat!
Since I come from the world of arts and theatre, I think of a “hat trick” as a feat by dancers like Fred Astaire, who did great tricks with their top hats and bowler hats.
My hat trick is much easier. Its goal is to give you a quick way to decompress, or change your focus quickly.
Many years ago I worked two jobs. I was a piano accompanist and adjunct teacher for a prestigious arts high school. When I accepted the job, it was going to be full time, but before the school year started, it was cut to half-time. I needed more work.
I’d been working at a temp agency prior to this, doing office work. One of the companies I’d worked for wanted to hire me part time to do some collections work, as well as help the office manager with overflow tasks.
The two buildings were just a few miles apart, and both had some flexibility in the times they needed me.
But it was a bit chaotic. I’d arrive at the school for an eight a.m. class that was ninety minutes long. Most days, I wasn’t needed at the school again until 1 p.m., so I’d drive to the office job and work there until it was time to return to school. Sometimes we’d have after school rehearsal so I would end my day there. On other days I’d head back to the office at 3 p.m., when school ended, and put another couple of hours.
It worked! The variety of my days made it into a very enjoyable year.
However, the two positions were very different. Different needs, different requirements, different ways of working.
I needed a way to switch my brain on and off between the two very different positions.
To accomplish this, I imagined two hats – my “playing/teaching” hat, and my “professional” hat. In my imagination, I placed both hats on the passenger seat of my car.
In the morning, when driving to school, I reached over and picked up the teaching hat, and stuck it on my head. When leaving school and driving to the office, I took that hat off, and put on my professional hat, and so on. At the end of the day I left both hats in my car.
I know this may sound silly – but there’s quite a bit of science behind this.
The ways that people learn fall into three categories – visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Kinesthetic simply means tactile – you learn by touch or doing.
As a teacher, I know that combining all three methods of learning whenever possible can enhance learning. The more integrated they were, the more deeply seated the learning would be. Even if you are primarily a visual or auditory learner, combining these methods with kinesthetic movement enhances that learning.
For me, those two hats contained the knowledge and skills of the jobs, as well as their own unique stresses. For instance, if I’d had a difficult session at school in the morning, I didn’t want that to bleed over to my other job, and vice versa. By switching the “hats”, and eventually leaving them in my car – I was able to manage the stress of two completely separate jobs with ease.
Since that time I’ve used the hat trick many times, especially in stressful situations. I take off the stressful hat and leave it somewhere, and put on my peaceful hat. Try it – it really works!
You don’t need to have two jobs, and it doesn’t need to be a hat (although a hat is a pretty easy visual). All you need to do is find a motion that works for you, and when you find yourself feeling stressed, anxious, or unable to cope — take a breath and put on a new hat.
