Changing Your Mental State

Haven’t there been times when you have felt low and depressed and have wanted to change your life? There would have been so many times when someone would have explained to you the power of a smile or positive thinking. But, listening to pep talks and not practicing is not going to benefit you much. If you have gone through the uROk 33 day challenge by Sari Mustonen-Kirk, then you will understand that change is a continuous process that requires action.

You won’t be able to bring about any change in your life unless you take some action. So, if you are willing to bring about some positive change in your life, then try out the 3 given experiments on yourself and feel the change in just a few minutes –

1. Smile – It is a proven fact that how you hold your body affects your mood. Try this simple experiment. Frown and hold it for about 15 minutes. You will find that nothing happy seems to penetrate you. In fact, you will get only grumpier. Now change the frown to a smile and keep smiling and laughing. You will feel happy and begin to enjoy yourself. It proves that smile is a change agent.

2. Hold Your Body In An Erect Position – This experiment calls for action and learning how to change your mood. Think about something that makes you moderately uncomfortable. Visualize it until you feel that you are actually in that state of discomfort. Now, pull up your shoulders and stand with your body erect and feet apart. Breathe in deeply and smile.

How do you feel now? Try to recreate those uncomfortable feelings again. You will find that you cannot experience any discomfort. When your body language asks you to be happy, your neural system cannot go against it.

3. Answer “What if…” – This is the best game of them all. But remember, if you are looking for a permanent boost to your self confidence and bring about a permanent change in your mental state, then this is not the right game. The ‘what if…’ game will give you an instant boost to your confidence and to your mental state.

What you have to do is to remember that time in your life or an incident in your life when you have felt completely confident of yourself. Let that motivate you. Remember the way you held your body, the way you talked, held your head and breathed.

Alternatively, you can think of someone you idolize for his confidence. For example, Sari of uROk is an inspirational force for many. Imagine stepping into her shoes and her body. How will you behave now? Replicate that person’s expressions, body language and gestures.

Ask yourself, ‘what if the feelings that you were now experiencing were extreme confidence’? The moment you visualize it, you will find yourself subconsciously changing your posture, gestures and attitude. The way you talk and the way you breathe, all changes.

These games are very simple but you have to practice quite a lot to be able to get into that mental state when you are happy and confident in just a few minutes. As you practice you will find that whatever your state of mind, by changing your body language, plastering a big smile on your face and asking ‘what if…’ will give you a boost of confidence immediately. All that you need is a motivation to live life happily.