How do you define a bad day? High anxiety, low productivity, and feelings of imposter syndrome are all symptoms of a rough mental health day. Due to current events, everyone has more than their fair share of bad days – especially as we are mostly trapped at home with our own negative thoughts! This post provides you with 5 powerful mindset hacks for resetting bad days and getting things done.
What Is a Mindset Hack?
Mindset work means training your brain to think in positive, healthy, and productive ways. Because the brain is a muscle, it’s important to exercise it often. Popular methods of doing this are mindset journaling, practicing gratitude, and meditating. Mindset work goes hand in hand with raising your vibration because it increases energy and positive feelings.
Your brain delivers information to the rest of your body on neural pathways. The info actually travels on these pathways, providing signals to your other systems.
A mindset hack is a shortcut that you can create in the neural pathways that cause your brain to jump to positivity more quickly. So, you’re saying we can actually change and create neural pathways in our minds? The answer is 100%, yes!
Mindset work and powerful mindset hacks are all about creating new neural pathways that didn’t exist before. Think of it like walking a trail. The more times you walk on a nature trail, the more defined that path becomes.
Resetting your day with mindset hacks is not wishy-washy stuff. It is a psychological practice that improves productivity, problem-solving, self-esteem, and intuition.
Ready for your first powerful mindset hack for resetting bad days? Let’s get started!
Mindset Hack One: Affirmations
An affirmation is a positive truth that replaces something negative in your mind. Negative messages are often called limiting beliefs because they usually put limits on your growth. An example of a limiting belief is:
“I never have enough time in the day to get everything done.”
This belief puts a limit on what you expect yourself to accomplish. It does not leave room for growth, improvement, or problem-solving.
When you find yourself dwelling on a limiting belief, try replacing that message with an affirmation. Something like,
“I am in flow and am doing my very best work. I’m sailing through my to-do list, and nothing can slow me down!”
Of course, affirmations should always be personalized to you for maximum effectiveness.
Affirmations don’t just help us feel better about ourselves. They also open our intuition and quiet our fears. Affirmations are my favorite powerful mindset hack for resetting bad days because they relieve my stress and help me be solution-focused!
Need some ideas for affirmations? I’ve got you covered. Check out my library of affirmations posts or use this video for meditation.
Mindset Hack Two: Change the Narrative
We’ve already talked a bit about limiting beliefs. Bad days become even worse days when we focus on those negative messages! Changing the narrative goes hand in hand with affirmations, but goes a little bit deeper.
To do this exercise, write down every limiting belief that lives in your mind. Get every single one of them down on paper, even if it makes you cringe!
Now, for each limiting belief, you will write your own personal affirmation next to it. Your affirmation should directly contradict the limiting belief.
Whenever a limiting belief appears in your mind, redirect to your affirmation. For example:
I am overwhelmed and at my breaking point, BUT I choose to care for myself and show myself love. There are people around me who love me and support me and will help me if I ask. Today, I choose to breathe in blessings and breathe out gratitude. I am powerful and unstoppable. I WILL persevere.
Is that deep mindset work, or what? On my most challenging mental health days, I whip out my journal and start changing the negative narrative. For my worst days, it’s a very powerful mindset hack.
Mindset Hack Three: Brain Dump
Do you ever feel like there’s too much noise going on inside your brain? Is it hard to complete tasks? It’s not uncommon to experience overwhelming thoughts – especially when you have important things to do. An excellent way to handle this kind of overwhelm is to do a brain dump.
To reset your day with a brain dump, you need to create an outlet for the worry and stress. You can do this with journaling, video recording, or audio recording. The idea here is a stream of consciousness release. That means you say or write whatever comes to mind – no exceptions.
Brain dumps can often help you identify worries that you didn’t even know you were dealing with! After you’ve finished dumping, go back and read or listen to what you dumped.
Then, identify the things you can control and practice releasing what you can’t.
Brain dumping is a powerful mindset hack for resetting your day because it helps you process your inner dialogue. It is easier to figure out what’s wrong after dumping your thoughts onto paper. Give it a try!
Mindset Hack Four: Phone a Friend
The worst thing you can do on a bad day is to stay stuck in your own head. You’ll most likely spend hours going around and around in circles, and you probably won’t get much work done.
One conversation can change everything. A good, old-fashioned venting session can turn a whole day around! Text a friend, call your partner, or even ring up one of your parents. Often, the people in our lives love having the opportunity to support us – even if it just means being a listening ear.
It’s best to go into these conversations with a growth mindset. This growth mindset hack is all about looking for solutions to the problems you’re experiencing. Perhaps your friend will give you great advice. Or maybe you will see the answer clearly as you talk through the situation. (That’s what happens most often for me!)
What I mean to say is be aware of getting trapped in negativity. Make sure that your venting closes with positivity and problem-solving. Otherwise, you might end up manifesting more negativity! And that’s not the reset we are looking for, is it?
Mindset Hack Five: ASMR Videos
Quite often, my lousy day follows me to bed. I struggle with intermittent insomnia. My worries manifest themselves at night and make it hard for my body to close down and sleep. Many people suffer from sporadic insomnia, making it difficult to get the rest they need for the workweek.
With that in mind, this powerful mindset hack is for resetting your night, which will impact your day.
When I can’t sleep, I use ASMR videos to calm my psyche and lull me to sleep. Most people are familiar with ASMR as it has become trendy in recent years. But if you haven’t, let me explain.
What is ASMR?
AMSR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response. It refers to the tingly, calming feeling we get when we hear certain noises.
For example, my mom used to paint and repaint a particular wall in the kitchen – often with designs or flowers. Listening to and watching her paint always gave me a tingly feeling in my scalp and made me sleepy. I found it relaxing. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was experiencing ASMR.
Most of us have had similar experiences – noticing that certain sounds or movements cause us to feel relaxed or sleepy. For some, it is watching someone draw or paint. Others might enjoy the sounds of hair brushing or whispering.
How to Use ASMR as a Mindset Hack
Millions of people around the globe use ASMR videos for relaxing, relieving stress, and falling asleep. Personally, ASMR is the only reason I get any kind of sleep on most nights.
ASMR is also a great mindset hack for resetting bad days that you can do on a work break or as you are getting ready in the morning. I know several people who put ASMR videos on in the background as they work for a calm, relaxing work environment.
If you’re interested in ASMR but don’t know where to start, check out two of my favorite ASMR channels and start relaxing!
Gentle Whispering ASMR
WhispersRed ASMR
Genius Mindset Hack Ideas from YOU
I’d love to hear from you, babe! What powerful mindset hacks to you use for resetting bad days? Let me know in the comments or send me an email. Let’s chat!
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