When You Notice Yourself Getting Off-Track Mentally, Do This

Most days, you wake up and feel energetic and exuberant, ready to face the day. However, sometimes, you don’t feel so elated. In fact, there can be days when you can barely get out of bed. 

If you find yourself in this position sometimes, it can be hard to know what to do. Something is wrong, but you’re not sure what you need to do to fix it. 

If you notice that you start getting off-track mentally, do the following: 

1. Check Your Gratitude Levels

If you notice that you feel depressed in the morning when you get out of bed, check your gratitude levels. 

Usually, if you feel miserable, it is because you are desiring something that you don’t have right now, instead of focusing on what you do have.

Go over your thoughts with a fine tooth comb. Remind yourself that there are plenty of things you can get grateful for in your life, even if you don’t have the exact thing that you want right now. 

2. Notice Your Self-Talk

Most people spend all day chatting to themselves. Sometimes, the talk is positive, but not always. In fact, it can turn negative quickly, leaving you feeling miserable. 

There are many examples of negative self-talk. These include: 

• Telling yourself that you’re not good enough

• Believing the worst about a loved one or a situation

• Fearing that you’re going to get sick and die very soon

• Asking yourself why you haven’t done more in your life

The trick to stopping negative self-talk is to notice when it is happening. At first, it’ll run away from you and you won’t have much control. However, as you practice focusing on what’s happening right now, you’ll notice that it slowly fades away. Eventually, it doesn’t have any hold over you at all. 

3. Focus On The Positive Aspects Of Your Life

When people are going through withdrawal from substances in drug rehab centers, it can help them to focus on the positive aspects of their life. Patients will often remind themselves why they are going through so much pain: it is so that they can live fully and freely in the future. 

Try focusing more on the positive aspects of your life. Allow them to fill you with joy. Focus more on what you have than what you want. 

4. Do Something Meaningful

Sometimes, you can feel off-track mentally if you’re not doing anything meaningful with your time. Often, it can feel like you’re just going through the motions, putting one foot in front of the other, without really doing anything significant. 

Change this. Explore something new, even if it is outside of work. Find something that really fires you up and gets you interested in life. Take one action per day. That’s 365 individual steps by this time next year towards a more fulfilling existence. 

5. Visualize

Lastly, if you are struggling, visualize the things that you want in life. Imagine that you have them already. Often, this simple practice will change your mental state and help you engage more in your day-to-day work.

6. Talk to Someone

When you feel yourself getting off-track, it can be helpful to talk to someone else about what's going on. This can help you get some perspective and clarity on the situation. In fact, by talking to someone you trust, you may realize that the off-track thoughts are not as important as you thought. 

You either talk to a friend, your partner, a relative, or a professional at The Awareness Centre. Professionals can help you understand your off-track thoughts and give you tools to deal with them. These tools include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), which has been proven to be effective in treating anxiety and depression.