In previous editions of my newsletter, I’ve covered topics like managing your time and managing your energy. This week we’re focusing on managing your mind, especially in stressful situations. I’m going to share with you 4 easy tools that I learnt from Mel Robbins which are practical and powerful.
Why is managing our mind even important for us to think about? Our thoughts dictate our feelings and therefore our actions. We can have total control on how we deal with what life throws at us if we don’t fall prey to the constant worrying that most of us are prone to. We can also manage our mind and control it to achieve things that may have been hitherto scary and undoable like sky diving or public speaking.
Does your mind constantly work out the worst case scenario in any situation? Such fatalistic thinking on a regular basis can be very stressful and can end up taking a huge toll on your emotional wellbeing leaving your health compromised.
Regular meditation is of course the best way to cleanse the mind on a daily basis. Just as we clean our bodies every day to get rid of the germs and toxins that may have accumulated through the day, so too must we cleanse our brains.
How might we cope we sudden bad news? How can we control our mind to overcome a fear?
Let me share two personal examples of how I did it using these simple tools shared by Mel Robbins:
Don’t say you’ll be “fine.” Tell yourself you’ll “face this.”
Focus on what you’re gonna do about it.
Keep your mind wherever your feet are.
It could be worse – find gratitude.
My first example is how I’ve dealt with some bad news on the health front. A few years ago my regular annual health check-up revealed that a few of my cancer markers were outside the normal range. I immediately freaked out and my mind jumped to doomsday scenarios. I totally panicked. I even added a mental note to get started on my will! Why? Because I do have a family history of cancer and a doctor I had seen in the past told me to be extra careful. He just said to be careful not that I was going to certainly get it. But you see how the mind can play with your emotions!
I forced myself to get over my initial paranoia. I converted it to a “I’m going to take this head on” attitude which then lead me to what I would I should be doing about it. What I did end up focusing on was transformational lifestyle changes including healthier eating, exercise every day and following circadian rhythms amongst many other things. Whenever my mind would allow me to think of being diagnosed with cancer, I would bring it back to the present (keep your mind wherever your feet are) and I would distract myself by looking and thinking about something in the physical environment I was in. Most importantly, I turn to gratitude journaling as a way to keep perspective on all the good things I have going in my life.
My second example is how I used the same set of tools to overcome claustrophobia and a silly fear of scuba diving to become a PADI certified scuba diver. You can read my Instagram visual story here and even see me plunging into the ocean in my scuba gear for the first time ever.
The sequence of events for managing my mind and overcoming my fear was very similar. I first decided I am going to do this and not pontificate endlessly about everything that can go wrong. I then looked up lots of tips online on how to overcome fear of scuba diving despite my girls endlessly ragging me about this! While I was actually in the water, I focused on slow breathing and deep appreciation of the physical environment (it does not get more visually stunning than the Maldives) to control the negative chatter in my mind and to prevent myself from wanting to shoot up for air. And I kept reminding myself about how lucky I was to be experiencing the phenomenal beauty of the ocean.
Gratitude!
I know it’s not as simple as it may appear. The next time you panic or want to pro-actively overcome a fear, do try these four tools. You may make more progress than you imagined.
Over to you now:
On a scale of 1 to 10, how well do you manage your mind? Is there scope for improvement?
Which situations in your life get you to hit panic mode? Is there a pattern to when you most get fatalistic about situations?
Which big scary goal that you want to achieve but have been putting off can be actioned with these tools?