4 ways to get out of a negative mindset

Have you ever had a day where you were just in a bad mood, where every little thing seems like it irritates you?  Yep, me too. 

The first step to walking your way out of a negative mindset is awareness.  There are a lot of ways to practice awareness in your day. 

You can add a meditation practice.  This practice helps you realize how you are feeling in your day, or even what you are thinking.  By practicing meditation you learn to watch thoughts come and go in your mind.

You can start a morning habit of journaling for 5 minutes.  To increase awareness, I ask my clients to check-in with themselves as to their general mind state for their day, or to describe how they think their day is going to go based upon what they have on their schedule.

You can set an intention of how you want to feel in your day.  I like to do this as part of my morning routine.  I think through my day, mentally or on paper listing what I need or would like to accomplish that day.  I also think through if any part of the day will be mentally or emotionally challenging.  Then, with this information of what my day potentially looks like, I ask myself "how do I need to feel to do my best today?".  If I have a day stacked with meetings, I may answer, "engaged" if I want to make sure I am fully present and giving my all to whomever I am meeting with. 

The second step to walking your way out of a negative mindset is acknowledge.

I hope I am not alone in being someone who ignores what I am feeling!  I have been known to completely ignore physical care when trying to complete a project, task, or deadline.  My body is silently screaming that it needs a break and it doesn't even hit my radar until my back and neck are so tense I cannot ignore it any longer.  Anyone else? 

What does acknowledge look like?  Once you have become aware that you are in a negative mindset, I want you to name it without judgement.  Acknowledge is paying attention to what your body is trying to tell you.  Or acknowledge is recognizing you are sad and not pushing it away.  I don't think we realize how much mental and emotional energy goes toward pushing down an emotion.  I like to think of acknowledgement as building trust between myself and my body, or to put it another way, listening and honoring what my body is trying to convey to me that it needs. 

The third step to walking your way out of a negative mindset is accept.  Acceptance is key to leading a better life.

So now you have become aware that you are having a bad day, and you have acknowledged it to yourself.  In order to begin to feel better, you need to practice fully accepting that you feel the way you do.  Don't push against it, don't judge it, don't wonder why you feel this way.   All of that again takes mental and emotional energy from your day.   Just say to yourself, "ok, I'm super irritable today."  And then, take a moment to just let that be ok.  We all have hard days, bad days, sad days.  Accept it.  If you practice acceptance, then the potential for that negative mindset to pass is greater. 

The last step to walking your way out of a negative mindset is ask. 

Have you ever taken the time to question your thoughts?  I didn't use to, and frankly it's pretty astonishing some of the things that go on in my brain on a daily basis!  :)

You are doing great!  We have now become aware we are irritable, we have taken the time to acknowledge it to ourselves (without judgement), and we have accepted that this is just the mindset we are in.  This is my favorite step!  Ask yourself, "what do I need right now?". 

In following this example,  your answer might be to extend some grace to yourself, to not expect so much from yourself, from your day, or to take a moment to make a cup of tea and take a 10 minute break. 

The idea in using these steps to get out of a negative mindset is to honor where you are today.  Often, in honoring where you are, then you have the ability to lean into self-care. 

Do you want more tips on mindset, clarity, intentional living, or self-care? Follow me on Instagram or Facebook for my daily stories, or signup for my emails.

I am a mindset coach that loves to help people gain clarity around patterns in their thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. With that clarity we then can being to place habits and anchors in your day to begin to change and grow those areas of our life that are no longer serving us.

I truly believe that you can grow into the best version of yourself. Reach out for more information! I offer a free one hour consult to chat through where you are in life and where you would like to be.