People Who Recover Quickly From Bad Days Usually Repeat 4 Mental Phrases, According To Neuroscience
Eugenio Marongiu / Shutterstock Repeating mantras to yourself is a superpower many people aren't aware they have at their disposal. In fact, neuroscience has shown that positive affirmations can reprogram your subconscious thoughts in ways that reduce your stress and improve your quality of life.
Drilling a certain belief into your subconscious mind can change your life, so it can definitely change a bad day into a good one. Those people who repeat these specific positive statements to themselves recover more quickly from bad situations, keeping themselves happier overall.
People who recover quickly from a bad day usually repeat these mental phrases
1. "I'm allowed to be sad right now."
This one surprised me, honestly. According to a 2017 study of 183 adults, participants reported that when they accept how they are feeling, they experience fewer negative emotions each day. Part of the reason for this was that they experienced less stressful daily emotions, but the results still ring true.
Allowing yourself to be sad is the only way to eventually become happier. If a person doesn’t allow themselves to feel their emotions, it only leads to the eventual crash out. However, allowing yourself to be sad for too long will only lead to depression. Striking a healthy balance of allowing yourself to be sad but forcing yourself to eventually move on will lead to an overall happier life.
2. "What else could this mean?"
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Cognitive reappraisal is “reinterpreting the meaning of a stimulus, including one's personal connection to it, in order to change one's emotional response,” according to a 2012 study by Kevin Ochsner, Jennifer Silver, and Jason Buhle. For example, the phrase “I failed” could become “I tried.” Or, “nothing works out for me” could turn into “this opportunity wasn’t right for me.”
The benefits of cognitive reappraisal are huge. Reappraisal requires bringing negative emotions to light and addressing them. As a result, it reduces negative emotions. It also increases problem-solving skills. So, the next time you’re having a bad day, try to reframe it. It sounds stupid, but it will help.
3. "What would I tell someone I love?"
I can’t lie, I do this all the time. Whenever I think something bad is happening, I think about the advice I would give my best friend. Then, I apply it (which is very hard for us Virgos). For example, if I'm upset because I got a parking ticket, I think about what I would tell my best friend: "Don't worry, it happens to everybody."
The reason this strategy works is that it doesn’t require ignoring the bad feeling. It just requires changing your perspective. It’s so easy to think that a minor inconvenience is something bad happening to us, and just us. We take minor things as a personal attack. Even when we talk things out, however, we realize it isn’t as bad as it seems. This is why people journal so much. It's a way of getting our thoughts out of our heads.
4. "This doesn't define me."
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Some of the best advice I’ve ever received on making decisions is to make a list of your values as a person. Then, when at a crossroads, you’ll know which way is correct because you know how to stay true to you.
In a study by psychologist David Creswell and his colleagues, 85 participants were asked to affirm their list of personal values before they underwent a laboratory stress-challenge. According to Creswell, “participants who affirmed their values had significantly lower cortisol responses to stress, compared with control participants.” This study proves how knowing who you are can greatly benefit you in life.
People who recover quickly from bad days probably have a mantra similar to “This does not define who I am” or “this setback doesn’t erase me.” As a result, bad days don’t get to them because they know that isn’t part of who they are.
Sophie Bagheri is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and theatre who covers lifestyle topics.
