My Best Tips To Avoid A Negative Mindset

During these challenging times, some of us have found ourselves lost in a stampede of negative thoughts, memories and feelings that often destroy our moods for hours or even days.

After reading about mental issues and listening to more podcasts than I can remember, I started practising different activities and techniques and today I want to share the ones that have been more helpful.

First of all, I want to clarify that I am not a mental health professional. If your thoughts or issues are prominently taking a toll on your life, you should speak with one. If there is one positive thing about the past year is the increased awareness of mental problems and the importance of treating our mental health with the same priority as our physical one.

Let’s start.

Listening to a podcast/reading about mental health

Sometimes the solution is to pay attention to yourself instead of trying to keep your mind away, busy with unimportant information.

If you feel some memories or emotions are making you feel stressed or sad, reading about the topic and understanding where do they come from and how to manage them can be surprisingly helpful. Make an effort and connect yourself to your body and mind to understand every part of it. You are the only one responsible for how to manage your feelings. 

I know this may feel uncomfortable but look at it this way: think as your mind as an individual part of you that will feel grateful to see you are actively taking care of her. And remember, you are not unfortunate in life. You are alive, and as difficult as it feels when you are going through a bad season, there are multiple things to be grateful for.

Everyone is carrying their baggage, some are simply better at hiding it than others, but the most important thing is to educate ourselves so that we understand our own pain and that way you are able to heal it.

And remember, once you know your weaknesses and you know how to manage them, you will be invincible.

Reschedule Your Life

Maybe is time to change your current itinerary. Have a look at your daily tasks and make sure you have at least one hour for yourself every day. Make sure you have some time for your hobbies, that you get enough sleep and that you have a moment during the day to write about your thoughts and progress.

If you are working from home, you can add a couple of different activities to your agenda. What is something you have been wanting to learn? Make a spot every day to stay in touch with your creative side. Paint, design a house online or practice magic tricks.

In my case, It also helped me a lot to change my first meal/drink of the day. Having a matcha tea instead of a sweet coffee always makes me feel a bit more proud of myself for starting the day with a healthy choice. 

Take a bath/shower

I am a big believer in the power of baths. If you only have a shower at home, a nice warm shower session can help you feel cleaner and more ready to start the day. 

Did you know that owners of depressed cats are told to shower their pet to make him feel better? Bathing a cat sounds pretty dangerous, but it has a very powerful effect on them.

In fact, everything you do or don’t do has an effect that manifests in different ways including the way you see yourself, your actions and your emotions.

Take Care of Your Inside

In other words, try to eat healthy. Having a bad day and binging on Five Guys is one thing, but having your emotional baggage trip you for a long time is way different. 

Remember that food for your body is like gas for your car. You wouldn’t give your car 3/4 of petrol and 1 shot of soda, would you? That’s because you know the value of your car and you don’t want to pay that price in mechanical repairs (not even think about the embarrassment of explaining why you added soda to your gas tank).

Your body has a lot more value than a car and the better you treat it, the more grateful and positive reactions it will create in the long term.

If you are feeling low, it’s the perfect opportunity to let your body know you care about him/her. Eat loads of vegetables and fruits. Quit alcohol and sugar as much as you can. Take multivitamins, drink a lot of water and teas and hydrate your skin. 

Want to Chat? I’ve Got a Weird Solution

Some of us have felt intensely isolated during the last year. Lack of human interactions are extremely negative for our brain chemistry and the situation in London has been so bad for so long that meeting with other households has been banned for multiple months.

Not being able to be around people and feeling forced to work from home has made the issue difficult even for the lone-wolf introverts. 

It was a Friday after I finished my shift when I realised that I had nothing to do for the rest of the day. I was home alone and felt like talking to someone.

So I opened Omegle…

Omegle is well-known for the amount of unsolicited male genitalia in focus you are going to find and the accessibility to ignore people you don’t want to talk to/see.

Call it the beginners’ luck, but I meet a lovely girl from India who is studying engineering and loves Harry Potter. I also met a super chill guy from Belgium that can’t wait for the pubs to open again in his city and loves heavy metal. Having a couple of conversations with real people improved my mood that evening. It kind of made up for the naked members I found on the way!

I know there are more experiences that you can try in order to feel better. Going for long walks outside and planning projects for the future like planning trips to different cities have improved my mood too, but so far these are my top pics for the day.

Have you tried any of these? Let me know which are the activities that kill negative moods for you.