Transform Your Mindset: 5 Powerful Tools to Elevate Your Thinking

My coaching clients and I use these mindset-shifting tools to get unstuck and change our worldview

Photo by NMG Network on Unsplash

‘Don't believe everything you think’ is the most important takeaway from being a psych inpatient in my 30s.

Many people don't realise thoughts aren't facts, and we can choose how we deal with them.

It's often the most common issue I work on with my coaching clients.

Unhelpful thinking or mindset loops negatively impact your wellbeing and life progress. You're stuck in old patterns that no longer serve you.

With practice though, you'll shift how your mindset defines and frames your inner and outer worlds.

Cultivate a choice in how you respond, rather than give in to mental impulses that aren't helpful.

These tools offer different ways to relate to your thoughts - from restructuring, detaching or enabling subconscious ones to be expressed and more.

Try one or all of them and see what works best for you in the situation. This gives you flexibility in the moment.

Tool #1: Cognitive restructuring

I struggled A LOT with anxiety and depressive rumination, to the point of insomnia and worse for years.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach to change and healing, using structured tools and techniques that restructure thoughts and influence your behaviour.

I've used this myself and am trained to use it (and the approaches below) in my coaching.

It offers a great entry point to mindset shifting as the structured approach helps you deconstruct your thought processes if this concept is new to you.

Use the ABCDE thought record process (see image below) and list what appears after an activating event.

By working through the steps, you explore how thoughts impact your emotions and behaviours.

You also look for the ‘hot thought’ - the one that has the most impact on how you think, feel and act.

Then you weigh up evidence for and against that thought. Eventually, you restructure the initial unhelpful thought into something more realistic and helpful to give a balanced view.

The goal is to reduce unhelpful consequences of how you think or act in response to certain events, so you get unstuck, create effective action, and reduce discomfort.

Here's a worked example of the ABCDE thought record process I've created for a (very real!) event: Need to write and publish article on blog but can't.

ABCDE Thought Record example by Sabrina Ahmed (9 June 2024)

Tool #2: Cognitive defusion

A different psychological style focuses more on the behavioural side of the equation. Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) is related to CBT but doesn't focus on cognitive restructuring.

The goal is to develop psychological flexibility, so you create a ‘choice point’ during an event and take action based on your values or long-term goals.

Instead of restructuring unhelpful thoughts, ACT takes a mindfulness-based approach to step back and observe thoughts as passing mental events rather than truths.

This is Cognitive Defusion - you notice the thoughts and accept them without getting attached, letting them occur and moving on regardless. It’s like having a radio channel in the background but you don’t sing along with the tunes.

I love ACT but it can take time to adopt. It helped me reduce my overthinking and incessant worry once the new way of treating my thoughts kicked in.

ACT suggests we accept there's always some discomfort in life. So instead of battling with painful thoughts, you let them wash over you.

‘Thanking my brain’ was a helpful technique I used to break thinking loops. I recognised my brain was trying to protect me, and telling it to shut the f**k up with self-criticism added fuel to the fire.

Instead, thanking my brain for trying to get my attention was a kinder style of self-talk that didn't ramp up stress.

Over time it didn't need to warn me of threats and fearful thinking as much. I began to defuse from my thoughts and they have less power over me and my behaviour.

When you notice an unhelpful thought, try this and see how discomfort changes:

1. Initial thought: I’m so lazy for not starting this article earlier.

2. Thought: Thanks brain, I'm having the thought that I'm so lazy for not starting this article earlier.

3. Thought: Hey brain, that’s an interesting thought, but what action do I take instead to move forward?

4. Thought: Turn your laptop on to start writing the article you've not started yet.

5. Action: Turns on laptop and open MS Word. Writes one sentence on blank page.

What also helps with this tool is saying a thought out loud repeatedly until it loses its meaning. For those 80s kids reading this, just remember ‘Bueller, Bueller, Bueller’…. :)

ACT tools have been shown to reduce the power of negative thoughts and improve psychological flexibility in several studies.

Tool #3: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)

MBSR promotes mindfulness and present-moment awareness as a way to reduce mindset-related issues, such as anxiety, depression and stress.

Our mind influences how we feel in our bodies and vice-versa, through a process called interoception.

This is the sense of the internal state of the body, or how we perceive our physical sensations from within e.g. hunger, thirst, heartbeat, pain etc.

Our brains predict emotional state based on the context we’re in, and related internal signals. Interoception gives us a clue about what might be going on, how we feel about it, and actions to take.

My personal challenges with chronic pain and trauma-related health conditions influenced my interest in MBSR techniques.

I know first-hand that being more attuned to our bodies leads to better physical and mental health.

The Body Scan Meditation is a fundamental MBSR practice - it enhances bodily awareness and promotes relaxation.

When you systematically focus on different parts of the body, from the toes to the head, you observe sensations without judgment.

What to do:

1. Find a quiet, comfortable space e.g., lying on the floor, sitting in a comfy chair.

2. Do a Body Scan Meditation for 10 - 45 minutes - flow your attention across your body parts from your toes to your head, pausing gently as you go to each part.

3. Relax your joints and muscles as your attention moves to that part.

4. If you get distracted, come back to the body or breath.

5. There are useful guided meditations YouTube but these are optional.

As you notice sensations, tension, or discomfort in your body, it distances you from mental overwhelm, and provides an alternative focus point from your thoughts.

When you learn to acknowledge other physical sensations with compassionate awareness, you get unstuck as you gain clarity and reduce stress.

But what if it’s the middle of the day and you can’t go and lie on the floor? MBSR adapts to any situation.

If I’m stressed and overwhelmed at my desk, I’ll ask myself ‘Where are your toes?’. Then I wiggle them on the floor or in my shoes.

This small shift in focus and attention breaks my overwhelm so I refocus on the next, best action.

When practiced consistently, MBSR improves focus, enhances emotional regulation, and reduces the impact of distracting or negative thoughts.

To break negative thinking loops and foster a more flexible and positive mindset, cultivate a more accepting and non-judgmental attitude towards your experiences.

Tool #4: Art-based self-compassion mandala

An art journalling practice for self-compassion combines the therapeutic benefits of creative expression with self-compassion principles.

This tool encourages you to explore and express emotions through art, fostering a deeper sense of self-understanding and kindness.

Psychologist Carl Jung explored the use of mandalas when researching eastern spiritual practices in the 1930s. The mandala is a circular pattern, traditionally used in spiritual practice, often with geometric elements.

He encouraged his patients to create mandala circular drawings, patterns and symbols in the moment to help them get back to their emotional centre.

Visual creation using a mandala offers ‘the construction of a central point to which everything is created’, according to Jung.

By developing your visual expressive language you gain insights and make meaning from your experiences.

This visual expressive language is personal to you, with its own meaning and connections. The colours, textures, media, location, shape, depth, materials and energy used etc to create tells us something about our inner world.

Were you hesitant and tentative with what appeared in your mind, or was there an urgency to get it down on paper or in digital form? Many such questions arise.

I've run art-based sessions in person and online, and with people who find it easy to mentally visualise versus those who don't - everyone has a visual expressive language.

Unfortunately, many of us stop exploring and experimenting with artistic expression at school. We get self conscious, start comparing, and stop playing.

But often we only find answers when this inner world is created externally to us. That distance, new perspective and tangible item (the art) supports curiosity and offers answers where they were hidden in our unconscious mind.

The image below is my self-compassion focused mandala art-journalling piece, exploring the topics of self-kindness and self-compassion.

Self-compassion Mandala by Sabrina Ahmed (9 June 2024)

I enjoyed creating it and realised how I've taken my mind and body for granted whilst recovering from a long-lasting illness.

I went into a lovely, relaxing flow state too during the creation process.

Research into self-compassion is shown to reduce self-criticism and promote a more positive and resilient mindset.

Studies highlight the benefits of self-compassion for better mental health and emotional resilience.

Tool #5: Gratitude journalling

Similar to art-journalling, creating time and space to express our inner world though writing brings clarity and calm.

This is needed more than ever in our hectic and interwoven lives. We barely get time to consider what we think about what’s going on, jumping from reflex response to reflex response.

When you're stuck in survival mode, it's easy to forget what's going well or what you're grateful for in life.

Regularly writing these down shifts your focus from the negative to positive aspects of your life.

It is a counterbalance to our innate negativity bias - we need at least 3-5 positive experiences to every negative one. Notice the good stuff and you'll make this shift automatically.

Some people enjoy writing morning pages early in the day. It can set you up nicely for a focused and productive day.

Don’t overcomplicate writing or journalling - find a quiet spot, and start writing. I still like analog writing in note books, but some people do this directly on a device.

Pick what works for you and write until you’ve run out of things you’re grateful for. Persist if you can’t think of anything. No matter how small, it still counts.

With my coaching clients, it’s a useful tool at end the day. This is especially helpful if you struggle with sleep.

To reduce stress before sleeping, sitting down for 5-10 minutes and listing the things you’re grateful for is a wonderful way for calmer entry into sleep.

Feeling safe is key to good sleep - how can you switch your mind and body off if you feel under threat, right? If that’s you, try this approach at the end of the day to take the edge off the day.

Studies have also demonstrated gratitude journalling improves mood, reduces stress, and increases overall wellbeing by fostering a more positive outlook.

Key takeaways

I hope sharing these 5 powerful tools to shift your mindset gives you some inspiration to try them out.

I’ve used all of these approaches myself, and use these with my clients where they make the most sense for the coaching focus.

It’s such a wonderful feeling when we find practical ways to get unstuck from the mental cages we end up in.

If you take anything away from this article, it’s that you CAN shift your mindset, and don’t have to remain trapped in unhelpful thinking loops or fear/anxiety etc.

Here’s a summary of the 5 mindset-shifting tools if you need a cheat sheet:

1. Tool #1: Cognitive restructuring:

   1. This describes changing negative or unhelpful thoughts into more positive, helpful and realistic ones.

2. Tool #2: Cognitive defusion:

   1. This describes separating yourself from your thoughts, so they have less power over you.

3. Tool #3: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR):

   1. This describes using mindfulness techniques to reduce stress and improve wellbeing to enhance mindset and thinking.

4. Tool #4: Art-based self-compassion mandala:

   1. This describes creating self-compassion focused art, in this case mandalas, to express feelings and thoughts, promoting relaxation and emotional healing.

5. Tool #5: Gratitude journalling:

   1. This describes regularly writing down things you’re thankful for, creating a positive mindset and better emotional wellbeing.

The great thing is you can use one or all of these on your own. Start small, experiment, and adjust for the next time.

With practise, these powerful tools give you new ways to transform your mindset and elevate your thinking for more meaningful topics and goals. 🚀

---

Which powerful mindset tool appeals to you and why? What will you experiment with first?