Mental Mindset

(photo by Alexandru Rotariu on Unsplash)

The mind likes to think. Left alone, our thoughts focus on all sorts of things, like our present situations, past memories, and possible future outcomes. Many of them may also be negative and repetitive. Pay attention to your thoughts. Be an active listener. Give yourself compassion through supportive self-talk.

Because society encourages thinking all of the time, many of us have not yet acquired the skills of moving beyond thinking into other realms of being. For example, if we pay attention to our body, we may find out what it is telling us through our body posture, physical sensations, and energy level.

It can certainly be a challenge to maintain a healthy mindset when in the midst of a challenging and stressful ordeal. I know this first-hand. During my long-term primary caregiver responsibilities with my parents, I had many stressful moments. And I was unable to maintain a healthy mindset, a lot. A lack of sleep, eating unhealthy foods to escape, and continual tasks under stressful situations produced a negative mindset that I was unable to shake. I knew all about the concept of “caring for the caregiver”, yet I was unable to implement these steps until late in the process, when professional caregivers came on the scene. It was a challenge to find a caregiver that was a fit for my mom. And when I did bring in an overnight caregiver for my dad, the caregiver was caught sleeping more than once. So, I continued the primary role.

In the perfect world, it would be ideal to implement healthy mental mindset habits when life is calm, in order to get good at it. Then when the challenges arise, we will be better able to adapt and continue with our self-care needs. Yet, most of us have stressful challenges on a regular basis. So the time to start is now, regardless of our life situation. It is necessary to care for ourselves as best we can when times are rough.

From my caregiver experiences, I have learned some lessons relating to mindset. As many things in life are out of our control, like parental health, I have found it helpful to stop being attached to the outcome. I still want a good outcome, of course. For me, I would like to identify my goals, and then simply focus my attention on the task at hand in front of me right now.

Affirmations work for me too. If a negative thought pops into my head, I try to combat that by consciously stating a positive affirmation over-and-over. I find that this temporarily stops the negative thought, and allows for the positive affirmation to slowly sink into my unconscious mind.

And as our mind and body are connected, exercise, nutrition, and sleep do make a difference in our ability to remain in a positive mindset.

By consciously changing our thoughts, we can over time, shift the energy in our body with beneficial results. Illness is really a sign that we are out of balance in some way and need to address a particular life situation, feeling, or thought. With practice, we can begin to recognize that we have more choices at our disposal about how to live, as opposed to responding to situations strictly due to a long-standing habit or automatic response.

What is one small step that you can implement to improve your mental mindset?