7 Steps To Reset Your Mindset

According to Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, a mindset is a belief that orients the way we handle situations.

Dwerk’s research with children found that there are two mindsets towards learning and intelligence and human beings experience both;

• Fixed – belief intelligence is static or inherent.
• Growth – belief intelligence can be developed.

Fixed Mindset;

• Leads to a desire to look smart and therefore tendencies towards …
• Challenges; avoids
• Obstacles; gives up easily
• Effort; sees effort as fruitless
• Criticism; ignores useful feedback
• Success of Others; feels threatened

Growth Mindset;

• Leads to a desire to learn and therefore tendencies towards …
• Challenges; embraces
• Obstacles; persistent in the face of obstacles
• Effort; sees effort as path to mastery
• Criticism; learns from useful feedback
• Success of Others; finds inspiration

Mindfulness is a key to growth mindset and brain plasticity.

MRI scans show that after an eight-week course of mindfulness practice, the brain’s “fight or flight” center, the amygdala, appears to shrink. … As the amygdala shrinks, the prefrontal cortex – associated with higher order brain functions such as awareness, concentration and decision-making – becomes thicker.

7 Steps To Reset Your Mindset

1. Empty Your Mind; Take a 15 minute time out to empty your mind with pen and paper of every project, task and should. A full mind is in mindless overwhelm and can’t tell the difference between;

• a project that requires a 30-minute time block of concentration and focus
• a task that requires 2 minutes or less to complete
• a should which is a someday / maybe

2. Express values based gratitude; Values based gratitude is associated with greater happiness. Invest 5 minutes a day affirming values, positive feelings and positive beliefs that strengthen the prefrontal cortex. “I am grateful now for the opportunity to be writing this as an expression of the value of wisdom, feeling aware and believing this article is of service and strengthening understanding.” Being of service and helping others to understand is an expression of love.

3. Wake up twice; In the absence of mindfulness, the brain’s “fight or flight” center, the amygdala is the first to wake up first thing in the morning. There are some that believe that the amygdala never stops its obsessive fear based thinking based upon unmet needs like control, perfection, power, recognition, safety and worthiness fueling and fooling you with negative emotions of anxiety and fear and negative beliefs like I don’t have enough or I am not enough.

4. Breathe and pay it no attention; Get into the practice of being the first to consciously wake up in lucid sleep breathing in and affirming happiness, joy, light and love affirming and releasing obsessive fear based thinking.

5. Forgive mistakes in perception; Follow these steps if your soul or being can’t hold the breathing in and affirming happiness, joy, light and love because of the amygdala obsessive fear based thinking.

1. I am feeling overwhelmed and believing that I have too many projects, tasks and to-dos and I will never get them all done.
2. Forgive me for feeling overwhelmed and believing that I have too many projects, tasks and to-dos and I will never get them all done.
3. Forgive me for forgetting that happiness, joy, light and love resonate within my heart and soul and I am magnifying awareness, concentration and decision-making with every breath that I take

6. Stop thinking of self compassion as self indulgence; Bob Dylan was asked by Time Magazine “How do you handle fortune and fame?” and he replied “Don’t let the gal or the guy in the backseat do the driving” meaning the brain’s “fight or flight” center, the amygdala.

7. Meditate; Close your eyes for 5 minutes and breathe in and affirm happiness, joy, light and love resonate within my heart and soul and I am magnifying awareness, concentration and decision-making with every breath that I take. Amen.