Top 10 Jedi Mind Tricks For Mental Well-Being

Use Jedi Mind Tricks to eliminate negative thoughts.

From positive psychology and cognitive behavioral therapy, we’ve devised these quick tips for you.

Do you ever have a negative thought that you cannot eradicate? Does too much work cause an overhang of stress? Do you get set off by something simple a person may say or do?

Well, I have but now I don’t. I categorize these three main negative psychological forces as a negative spiral, the fog, and internal rackets. We discuss these at the UWB40 Group  Jedi Mind Tricks can quell your internal voices.

Jedi Mind Tricks are something that you will find referenced often in our UWB methodology. By using proven strategies to train your mind, you will learn to prevent and control your thoughts from running rampant.

Our Jedi Mind Tricks are rooted in positive psychology, as well as cognitive-behavioral therapy. They are easily-digestible and designed to fit neatly into your daily life. Here is our top 10 list!

1. Think positive thoughts instead of negative ones. Start by practicing with simple, low-stakes scenarios. For example: when you walk into a room, try to locate five things you feel positively about as quickly as possible, such as “I really like the color of the walls” or “this piece of art inspires me.”
2. The “what if”approach.  Learn to control doubts or fears by using the What If Approach? What if you lost all of your money? Write out the worst-case scenario. Conversely, what if you made $1b billion dollars? How would like change? Think of the thing you fear the most and imagine the worst-case scenario thing you fear happening already happened. Work on visualizing this to the extreme, blowing it completely out of proportion. When this is blown up completely out of proportion, it becomes funny. This could make you laugh at this fear, which in turn eliminates the fear, or gets the fear under control.
3. The “prove yourself wrong” trick. When you find yourself thinking negative thoughts (“I’m too fearful to do/try X”), attempt to prove yourself wrong by stopping to unpack the logic (or lack thereof) behind your initial response. In doing so, you’ll realize that your brain (either your thoughts or your emotions) will lie to you sometimes––as a protection mechanism, or simply as a result of human cognition––our brain LITERALLY lets go of certain pieces of information in order to keep up with all of the decisions and judgments it makes every d ay! When you find yourself physically exhausted during a workout or a run, try taking one extra step or doing one more rep when you have the thought that you can’t keep going. Over time, your brain will begin to see your limitations in a more accurate light.
4. Incremental thinking. Evaluate “problems” on a scale from 0-10 instead of using a seemingly natural “all-or-nothing” approach. Re-characterize previously negative experiences as partial successes rather than utter failures. Then, after rating the problem, think about what it might take to move it down by one or two increments. This will help you understand what is and isn’t within your control.
5. Exposure and response prevention. This is commonly used by people who suffer from OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorders). First, identify situations that normally elicit negative reactions from you (anger, anxiety, fear or worry). The next time you find yourself in a similar scenario, try to focus your energy on doing everything you can to refrain from that negative thought pattern.
6. Progressive muscle relaxation. Relax one muscle group at a time, until your whole body feels loose and heavy. This technique is often paired with meditation, so you can find lots of guided prompts or try to move through the practice in a self-guided way.
7. “Miswanting” exercise. Do you know what you really want? Try to examine things you come across by asking yourself the question “do I really want this”? There is a Yale class on this.
8. Strengths interventions. Ready up on the 24 Character Strengths. Decide which are your top three character strengths (you can also find a free online quiz that you can take to figure this out). Take note of these strengths and focus on them for a week. Do things that allow you to showcase these strengths. Doing things that highlight your strengths is really beneficial to mindset and positivity.
9.  Micro-goals: Write down a small checklist of micro-goals (maybe start with 3). These can be simple and along the lines of “take a walk today” and then check these micro-goals off as you go. This will aid in feeling positive and productive.
10.  Practice gratitude: write down a list of three things you are grateful for daily. (Practicing gratitude actually does have proven positive effects on well-being)

Try out one or two of these Jedi Mind Tricks this week to start. If you notice benefits, work more of them into your everyday life. Think of these tips as a guru’s guidebook to moving from mental mayhem to mind control! If you really are interested to learn more join our UWB 40 Group. Mental Mind Control is our Week 2 activity.