Have you ever heard the phrase: “Change your mind, change your life”?

While it may sound like some fluffy, woo-woo cliché, it’s actually what I found to be the key in combating my depression.

When I finally stopped looking “out there” for answers and started looking inside at the contents of my mind, I unlocked access to lasting happiness.

As a child, I often felt like I was in a constant battle with my thoughts, feelings, and emotions. It was as if my thoughts and the whole world were working against me — doing whatever they could to bring me down.

The mean girl in my mind had endless bad things to say about how I wasn’t good enough in this way or that way. And I perceived any challenging event around me as happening to me. Can you relate?

Through this lens, I was powerless.

It felt as though my thoughts and feelings were happening automatically, and there was no stopping them. I was a victim spiraling down into the depths of my darkness over and over again.

When you learn to be aware of your thoughts and have the tools to change them, you take back control of your mind and emotions. I’m going to share with you my three favorite mindset modalities for rising out of depression and into happiness.

3 TRANSFORMATIONAL WAYS TO COMBAT DEPRESSION

1. NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING (NLP)

NLP is a modality that utilizes the power of language to effect permanent changes within your mind.

NLP can help you understand why you think the way that you do so that you can learn to manage your emotions.

One of the pillars of NLP is that you have everything you need already within you to create your desired emotional experience. The techniques of NLP help you to access those resources and create positive changes in your wellbeing.

2. HYPNOTHERAPY

Hypnotherapy focuses on accessing the subconscious mind in order to influence change. By inducing a hypnotic state, the mind can become more open to suggestions and directions, allowing these to be more effective.

In hypnosis, the conscious mind, with all of its automatic negative thought patterns and limiting beliefs, doesn’t act as its typical filter, which often keeps us stuck in our old ways.

This allows the change work to take hold and create new, more helpful ways of thinking and behaving.

3. COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT)

CBT is a problem-focused and action-oriented form of therapy that focuses on changing harmful thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors so that you can better regulate your emotions.

The theory behind CBT is that it’s not our circumstances that cause sadness, anxiety, and depression, it’s our perception of those circumstances that cause our negative emotions.

CBT gives you the tools to change your unhelpful thought patterns and better cope with challenging situations.

NEURO-PLASTICITY AND YOUR MOOD

Here’s the best part about all three of these tools: Neuro-plasticity is your brain’s ability to change throughout your lifetime physically and can, in part, be influenced by activity such as our behaviors, thoughts, emotions, and other stimuli.

What this means is that the more you utilize these modalities, the more you will influence your mind, and, ultimately, create long-lasting changes.

A MINDSET CHALLENGE FOR HAPPINESS

Here’s a fun and quick tool to start playing with to shift your thoughts:

Do you often find yourself thinking “what if…” followed by a worst-case scenario?

Like, “what if I fail my coaching certification exam, can’t pursue my dreams of helping people improve their health, have to go back to my boring desk job, and end up poor and miserable?”

And soon enough you’ve found yourself in a downward spiral of sadness, doubt, and sometimes even depression.

From one worrywart to another, I SO get it!

This is my fun reframe for you and a tool to practice when those dreaded “what ifs…” rear their ugly, unhelpful heads.

REFRAME YOUR MINDSET

First, you have to bring awareness to your thought, and decide to stop it in its tracks.

Now, explore replacing whatever comes after the “what if…” with something positive, exciting, and joyful.

For example, if I were to change the earlier thought, I might transform it into: “What if I pass my coaching certification exam with flying colors, I’m recognized by my school at graduation, I receive a flood of potential clients as a result, and my coaching business takes off?”

Try it out and see what happens!

IN CONCLUSION

I challenge you to continue to come up with more and more positive conclusions to those “what if…” thoughts until you feel a shift in your emotions.

What’s different for you? I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Remember that you hold the power in your mind to create new patterns of more positive thinking.

Equipped with this new mindset, you can experience more happiness than you’ve ever thought possible. I’m living proof.

For more on Haley, head here!