How to Change Your Mindset: Small and Big Steps

Spoiler alert: Part of what helped me change my mindset was what Michael Pollan discussed in How to Change Your Mind.

Some mindsets, particularly the way we perceive ourselves, are so ingrained in us, that we don’t even consider the possibility of thinking or behaving otherwise. Or it can take us decades to ever begin to confront our traumas and mindsets that are not serving us.

This holds particularly true in a society created to make you crave outside validation and feel like you need to meet certain milestones and to measure up to certain beauty/fitness/health/relationship standards. The default mode fostered by our materialist culture is to feel not good enough, less than, lacking, overwhelmed, longing for more, and so on. The default mode is to feel caught up in our own ego. While this may serve us in some ways, the release of ego, the communion of self with the other, is also crucial.

Long ago, I learned of the term the hedonic treadmill, coined by Brickman and Campbell in, believe it or not, 1971, discussing how new levels of wealth and material needs being satisfied simply lead you to new levels of material desires, in short, exploring how material wealth doesn’t lead to happiness. Well, research has found repeatedly that while that is true to a degree, a certain amount of income is necessary for happiness, in order to ensure some basic level of stability and needs being met.

So in a society that encourages the rat-race and falling prey to the hedonic treadmill, that holds us to impossible beauty standards, and that idolizes youth and material success, how can we find stillness and joy in who we are? How can we inhabit simply just being and accepting that we are enough, as is, in the present moment, even while we know we have all these outside demands and expectations?

Well, that is the paradox of life. And you can’t stress too much on finding happiness in the present, or it will evade you. You need to be able to relax into the moment, into yourself, to inhabit and embody yourself fully at regular intervals, if not as a way of being 24/7. You need to be able to shift toward an abundance mindset, doing the work you need to do to veer your perspective away from a scarcity mindset.

Yes, I’ve personally found that cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms have been tremendously useful and even vital for my transition from seeing myself as unworthy and inferior, but they were simply catalysts for deeper work that I needed to do myself, to undo old ways of thinking and seeing, to release past mindsets, behaviors, and versions of myself, to release past traumas. They helped me make space for gratitude, for living in the present, for believing that I have the capability to work toward my goals.

At the same time, there may be other significant changes that need to be made. You have to allow yourself to live outside of your comfort zone. You have to face hard truths and challenges that may be overwhelming. I won’t deny that I’ve had cosmetic work done, though some of this was also medical: my surgery did correct a deviated septum to help me to breathe better. While going the cosmetic and surgical route to “improve yourself” can easily become a slippery slope, I am an advocate for a person being able to elect to do the procedures that may help to boost their self-esteem, self-image, and ultimately well-being. Fitness and self-care are still critical.

Ultimately, the work and the medicine is in yourself. Physical fitness, spiritual well-being, physical health, financial and professional success, and strong healthy relationships are all interconnected. Changing your mindset is about coming home to yourself to understand that you are healthy, worthy, capable, and yes, divine.

The path toward changing your mindset may also mean acknowledging the gap between where you are and where you want to be and committing yourself toward making those changes. Unhealthy habits can be insidious and hard to both pinpoint and change. For example, sugar is a hidden culprit in most processed foods, in most of the foods in most of the aisles of the grocery store. Yes, even that loaf of bread likely has sugar, and let’s not even get started on the gluten.

While the work toward finding healthy habits, a healthy mindset, and a healthy overall life may be overwhelming and even endless, the rewards speak for themselves. We are always on a journey during the time we are here in this incarnation of life. The work and the healing will always be iterative. But the underlying theme is the importance of doing the work. To whatever degree you find yourself on the hedonic treadmill, it is important to counterbalance that with work and commitment toward your personal wellness, to check in and nurture all the interlocking, diverse aspects of your life. It is important to address your underlying spiritual self-connection that informs how you navigate through the different relationships and facets of your life.

Whether you opt for developing a relationship with earth medicines or not, connection to self and to community is cornerstone. Learning to love yourself is integral to forging the life you envision. Learning to see life as abundant, to appreciate the here and now, and to appreciate yourself, mind, body and soul, are foundational. With conscious, awakened self-love comes humility, acceptance, and gratitude. You must extend forgiveness and compassion toward yourself. You must commit to yourself.

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References:

Burke Harris, N. “How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime.” TED Med 2014. Sep. 2014. https://www.ted.com/talks/nadine_burke_harris_how_childhood_trauma_affects_health_across_a_lifetime

Carhart-Harris, R.L, Roseman, L., Bolstridge, M., Demetriou, L., et al. (2017). “Psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression: fMRI-measured brain mechanisms.” Scientific Reports. 1307. doi:10.1038/s41598–017–13282–7

Griffiths, R.R., Richards, W.A., Johnson, M..W., et al. (2008). “Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later.” Journal of Psychopharmacology.22: 6, 621–632. https://doi.org/10.1177/026988110809430

Jain, Shamini, PhD. (2021). Healing Ourselves: Biofield Science and the Future of Health. Sounds True, Boulder, Colorado.

Lattin, Don. (2017). Changing Our Minds: Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy. Synergetic Press: Santa Fe and London.

Maroon, J., Bost, J. (April 26, 2018). Review of the neurological benefits of phytocannabinoids. 9:91. Retrieved from: http://surgicalneurologyint.com/surgicalint-articles/review-of-the-neurological-benefits-of-phytocannabinoids/

Pollan, M. (2018). How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/529343/how-to-change-your-mind-by-michael-pollan/

Rediger, Jeffrey. (2020). Cured: Strengthen Your Immune System and Heal Your Life. Flatiron Books.

Youssef, Nagy A et al. “The Effects of Trauma, with or without PTSD, on the Transgenerational DNA Methylation Alterations in Human Offsprings.” Brain sciences vol. 8,5 83. 8 May. 2018, doi:10.3390/brainsci8050083