How can mindset help you live the life you want?
As behavioral health continues to find its footing within healthcare, the role of the mind in this area remains one of my most compelling interests. This week’s blogpost was prompted by a rivetting interview with Stanford researcher Alia Crum on the Huberman Lab podcast titled the Science of Mindsets for Health & Performance.
What is mindset?
In that compelling interview Alia Crum describes mindset as:
“Core beliefs or assumptions that we have about a domain or category of things that orient us to a particular set of expectations or explanations and goals.”
Crum’s years of exploring mindset professionally stem from her early experiences as an elite athlete. I believe this background is what helps her to personalize the science of mindset. (See below for links to related resources, articles and peer-reviewed studies.)
Our beliefs can shape our responses to stress, exercise, and the foods we eat, among many others. Ultimately, mindset can influence our life and health on every level.
How we think and what we believe can influence the meaning we derive from experiences and ultimately even the impact on our bodies. I can think of many examples from my personal life of how an adaptive mindset can be impactful. For instance, the way I feel after a night of poor sleep is connected to what I believe about the experience.
Different beliefs about what events or physical states mean can even contribute to our sense of identity. For example, viewing nervousness as excitement rather than fear might affect how we relate to it. For me, that changed a fear of public speaking into a love of public speaking.
The value of mindset
What I personally find valuable about mindset is its dynamism. Personal development is never static. We are always growing and changing.
Understanding our ability to influence and shape our growth and direction through how we think or believe can be empowering and help us see and address our blindspots.
Mindset can have particular bearing on our evolution as meditators and the ways we apply mindfulness in daily life. For instance, while meditating, viewing a mental state like boredom as an unfamiliar experience of calm might change the way we relate to it.
Another example might be remembering your intention for being a meditator or “knowing your why.” Knowing what we are intentionally cultivating or nurturing can influence the enthusiasm and energy we bring to it.
Taking meditation from being something generic to having personal meaning can change our experience of it. A personal relationship with meditation is what allows us to carry the practice into daily life, “beyond the cushion.”
My introduction to “mindset”
Thinking back on how one thing (or book) led to our personal development can show the way our actions have bearing on shaping our future. While growing up in Sonoma County, I was fortunate to have mentors among high school teachers and older friends who introduced me to new schools of thought.
I remember taking community classes on self-hypnosis and related classes at the Cotati Holistic Health Center (which later influenced the 1993 creation of the Davis Holistic Health Center.) In my teens, I was fortunate to attend lectures by people like John Lily, Tibetan monks, South American shamans and other inspiring leaders in the burgeoning “new age” of holistic healthcare and, what we called at the time, the self-actualization movement.
Since personal growth is an ongoing process, we have never “arrived” but are always in process. I am grateful for ongoing reminders about the power and value of mindset. These days, I read fewer books, but listen to more podcasts and follow blogs. So much information is accessible to us these days.
My early influences through books (these are not affiliate links):
These books had great bearing on my personal and professional life: Creative Visualizations by Shakti Gawain, Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer, and the Berkeley Holistic Health Handbook, which my Dad bought for me and shipped to France where I was living an exchange student. I invite you to drop in the comments your own.
In recent decades, special books for me were: Wherever You Go, There You Are, by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal by Rachel Naomi Remen, Healing Words, by Larry Dossey, and of course Full Catastrophe Living, also by JKZ (upcoming course offering) among others, including Atomic Habits by James Clear and Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg.
I hope you’ll take some inspiration here yourself and maybe think about how your mindset has influenced you over the years and today. We all can benefit from the power of our mind to help us heal and grow!
Links to resources and high quality peer reviewed studies related to mindset:
Dr. Alia Crum: Science of Mindsets for Health & Performance | Huberman Lab Podcast #56
Toolkit for changing stress mindsets - http://sparqtools.org/rethinkingstress/
Publication on mindsets & side effects
Changing patient mindsets about non-life-threatening symptoms during oral immunotherapy
Stress, mindsets, and success in Navy SEALs special warfare training
Nutritional analysis of foods and beverages depicted in top-grossing US movies, 1994-2018
Drop in the comments your book favorites that have influenced your personal growth and development!
