Maybe you just fell off the wagon, so to speak. You were planning to eat well, and, well, you pigged out on junk food instead. You’re hardly the first person to experience this kind of setback. But to you — right now — it feels like this “failure” marks a U-turn.
Here’s the thing, though: You don’t have to think of it that way.
“Those kind of slip-ups a lot of times are natural — I mean they happen to everybody,” says John Updegraff, a professor of social and health psychology at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. Making lasting healthy changes isn’t about instantaneously overhauling unhealthy habits, either, but rather is usually a steadier, gradual undertaking. And accepting that — as well as intermittent failures — often requires a shift in mindset. “It’s not … all or nothing,” Updegraff says. “Like some physical activity is better than no physical activity.” So if you have a goal of exercising a certain number of days a week (say, to get in the recommended 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity, like brisk walking, weekly), and you fall short, take stock of what you’ve done to get closer to your goal. Ditching the all-or-nothing mindset and approaching things as a gradual shift is one way you can change your thinking to improve your health.
Certainly mental health conditions like depression can have a profound impact on a person’s health behaviors and physical well-being. Similarly, having a serious or chronic medical condition — from cancer to diabetes — has been shown to increase mental health risk, especially in terms of the possible effect on mood. In both cases, this bidirectional relationship between physical and mental health should not go unaddressed; experts urge seeking professional help for mental health concerns.
[See: How to Make Healthful Dietary Changes Last a Lifetime.]
However, for many people, it’s not a condition that’s affecting their health, but rather — and perhaps more subtly — a mindset. “It’s almost impossible to just change your emotions through sheer force of will … ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy,’ made a great song, but it’s terrible advice,” says Suzanne Segerstrom, a professor of psychology and coordinator of the health psychology program at the University of Kentucky. But, she says, “it’s somewhat easier to change your thoughts.”
Here are four other ways to improve your mental game that could help boost your overall health:
Increase your self-efficacy. Yes, this is easier said than done. (But that doesn’t mean you should tell yourself it can’t be done.) “Self-efficacy is your belief about whether you can do something or not,” Segerstrom explains. “‘I feel capable of running a marathon.’ ‘I feel capable of putting my hand in the cage with the tarantula’ — so that’s an example that comes out of phobia treatment.’ ‘I feel capable of not buying M&Ms.'”
Whatever your goal is, your belief in your ability to reach it matters. Segerstrom suggests several ways to increase self-efficacy:
— Witness someone else you identify with achieve that goal. “If you see someone like you run a marathon, that increases your sense that you could do it too,” she says.
— Taste success. If you walk past the store aisle where the M&M’s are without grabbing a pack once, it will increase your self-efficacy to do it again, Segerstrom says. That idea is at the heart of the Great American Smokeout, she says; it’s a day where smokers are encouraged to quit smoking — a choice that will hopefully kick-start extinguishing the habit for good. (But as with ditching all–or–nothing thinking, experts remind that even if a quit attempt fails, it doesn’t preclude trying to quit again, and again, and again — whatever it takes.)
— Seek out encouragement from others. “If I say to you, ‘I believe you can do this,’ then you start to believe you can do it too,” Segerstrom says.
Take stock of what you can control — and what you can’t. Similar to the idea of self-efficacy, “just feeling a sense of control over your situation is also a big predictor of people’s adherence not just to the behavior, but also just their general well-being and mental health,” Updegraff says. So if, for example, you have a chronic condition like diabetes to manage, experts say it’s important to pay careful attention to what you can do. Focus on, for example, how you have control over your behaviors, which can influence how diabetes is going to progress, Updegraff suggests.
Optimism, like self-efficacy, can also help, and may even improve health outcomes in some cases. However, research shows that just as it’s difficult to shift from being pessimistic to being optimistic generally, and while it’s shown to help in some areas of health; in others, like with cancer, it doesn’t provide a clear advantage. That’s important to note as many people diagnosed with cancer feel pressure to put on a brave face and “fight” the disease on top of all the difficulties they’re already facing — an approach which oncology mental health experts say works for some patients, but, for others, makes it harder to cope.
[See: 11 Simple, Proven Ways to Optimize Your Mental Health.]
Practice mindfulness. This present moment awareness “is a tool that allows people to gain some insight into their emotional experience,” says David Sbarra, professor of psychology and director of the doctoral program in clinical psychology at the University of Arizona.
Experts point out that frequently what happens with unhealthy habits we can’t seem to kick, is that we’re not aware of or not dealing with underlying emotions in a healthy way — like with emotional eating. Mindfulness helps with recognizing emotions — not to change them — but to be more aware of them and how we may react to those emotions.
“One of the things that enables you to do is realize that the emotions come up and they pass,” Sbarra says. “So you can experience your emotions, and let them be your emotions, and then come back to what you’re doing and try to be engaged in what’s right in front of you.”
In the same way, being more mindful not only of how you’re feeling, but what you’re doing — whether it’s the food you’re eating (or how quickly you might be consuming it), or how long you’ve been sitting — can also inform efforts to be healthier.
Focus on routine. It would be easy to think that you have to be highly motivated all the time to achieve big health goals. However, just as emotions tend to come in waves, so does motivation; so it’s best to think strategically — breaking goals into component parts, experts say, and integrating those into a daily routine.
Nor is it just about setting the alarm clock or putting out workout clothes for the next day — or starting any new positive routine — that matters. Instead, it’s helpful to think about the emotional cues underpinning your unhealthy routines — like if you eat poorly or drink too much. To unwind a bad habit, Sbarra says it’s important to think about what’s called “stimulus control” — when the presence (or absence) of a stimulus elicits a certain behavior. This can underpin a routine, including an unhealthy one. So a person may find themselves regularly turning to alcohol after work to cope with stress. “Routines are very, very powerful; and the emotions can cue the routines, especially unhealthy behaviors,” Sbarra says. To try to combat that then, a person might only have a drink socially (if at all) on the weekends — and not in the presence of the stimulus, or after work when they’re stressed.
[See: 8 Ways to Stay Healthy at Work.]
The point, psychologists say, is not that every health problem — or behavior — is changed by mulling it over; and often a change in behavior can affect thinking patterns as well. Rather, it’s that thoughts and behaviors are inextricably intertwined — and should be considered together when trying to make a lasting change. What’s more, experts reiterate that it’s a process. So remember to think in terms of small strategies you can implement on a day-to-day basis, which Sbarro notes can have big cumulative effects — instead of trying to do too much all at once.
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5 Ways You Can Change Your Thinking to Improve Your Health originally appeared on usnews.com
