52 Small Changes for the Mind

1. Journaling Unlocks Clarity and Emotional Connection

Journaling gives you an opportunity to be with your innermost thoughts, so you can think through situations and life, and explore them at a deeper, more meaningful level.

Emotional Processing. Journaling provides a safe space to express feelings without judgment, aiding in processing difficult situations and promoting clearer thinking. It helps individuals reflect on their reactions, thoughts, and other people’s perspectives, leading to more intentional interpretations and calmer problem-solving approaches.

Self-Awareness and Growth. Maintaining a journal encourages greater self-awareness and a deeper connection with emotions, facilitating personal development. It allows individuals to identify their dreams, passions, fears, and areas needing change, fostering self-confidence and a clearer understanding of relationships and needs.

Stress Management and Happiness. The act of writing down feelings releases them, reducing stress and promoting calmness and happiness. Journaling also helps individuals appreciate positive experiences, savoring the good vibes and fostering a more positive outlook on life.

2. Music is a Universal Language for Mental Well-being

A universal language, music ignites passion and emotion in all of us.

Transformative Power. Music has a positive impact on mental health, improving mood, reducing stress, and enhancing sleep patterns. It can also improve brain function, cognitive skills, concentration, focus, productivity, and performance.

Therapeutic Applications. Music therapy has been helpful in treating patients with dementia, anxiety, and other mental troubles, as well as surgical and cancer patients. It can increase comfort and relaxation, improve pain control, and enhance overall quality of life.

Neurochemical Release. Listening to music releases neurochemicals in the brain that directly affect mental health, such as melatonin for healthy sleep patterns and dopamine for pleasure and reward. Actively making music has an even more positive impact, engaging more parts of the brain and body.

3. Smiling: A Free and Contagious Mood Booster

Smile; it’s free therapy.

Stress Reduction. Smiling helps lower heart rate and reduce stress levels, even when forced or unnatural. Studies show that smiling through stressful tasks results in lower heart rates during stress recovery.

Mood Enhancement. Smiling releases endorphins, which send feel-good messages throughout the body, reducing emotional and physical pain. The Facial Feedback Response Theory suggests that the act of smiling can improve mood, even when forced, and reducing negative expressions can reduce negative feelings.

Social and Aging Benefits. Smiling can create happiness in others by eliciting smiles, making individuals more attractive and approachable. Wrinkles from smiling are associated with a happier, more positive appearance, making smiling a holistic, natural "medicine."

4. Goal Setting Provides Purpose and Direction

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.

Meaning and Purpose. Setting and pursuing goals gives life greater meaning and purpose, increases happiness, and provides structure for decision-making and prioritizing. It promotes independent thinking and a strong sense of responsibility.

Improved Self-Esteem. Achieving goals boosts self-esteem, proving capability and building self-confidence. It increases awareness of strengths and mastery, quashing negative thinking and enabling a positive outlook.

Anti-Aging Benefits. Setting goals gives a continued sense of purpose, pushing individuals beyond their comfort zones and encouraging them to be at their best. It keeps the mind active, open, and flexible, warding off aging and maintaining memory.

5. List-Making Reduces Stress and Increases Productivity

One of the secrets of getting more done is to make a TO DO List every day, keep it visible, and use it as a guide to action as you go through the day.

Stress Alleviation. Writing down tasks alleviates stress by removing the possibility of forgetting something and having to pay the price later. It frees up brainpower to analyze, prioritize, and delegate tasks.

Organization and Prioritization. Making and maintaining lists gives a big-picture view of what needs to get done, providing organization and structure to a seemingly disorganized mountain of tasks. It allows for easy prioritization of responsibilities and avoidance of multitasking.

Sense of Accomplishment. Completing and crossing off items on a list rewards individuals with a huge sense of accomplishment, building confidence and self-esteem, ultimately contributing to happiness.

6. Mono-Tasking Enhances Focus and Reduces Stress

I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention.

Productivity Boost. Multitasking hinders productivity, while focusing on one task at a time increases efficiency. Research shows that performance suffers for most individuals when multitasking, and habitual multitasking can reduce abilities in filtering information and switching between tasks.

Stress Reduction. Multitasking causes increased levels of stress, which can impact memory. Constant stimulation produces an adrenaline release, which over time can damage cells that form new memories, potentially causing short-term memory loss.

Long-Term Happiness. Multitasking sacrifices quality of work for quantity, leading to fatigue and disappointment with the lack of real results. Information overload can make it difficult to prioritize and make decisions, diminishing overall happiness.

7. Comparison is the Thief of Joy: Focus on Self-Approval

“Child,” said the Lion, “I am telling you your story, not hers. No one is told any story but their own.”

Negative Impact of Comparison. Comparing ourselves to others robs us of joy, increases stress, and promotes dysfunctional behavior. It eats away at self-worth, undermines accomplishments, and damages relationships, creating resentment and jealousy.

Authenticity and Self-Approval. Our need to compare comes from a belief that we aren’t good enough as we are. Those who rely on self-approval don’t need to compare because they know they are living in a way that is best for them, consistent with their values, and appropriate to their circumstances.

Shifting Focus. Instead of focusing on what others have or are doing, shift your thinking to the good things in your life. Focus on gratitude and thankfulness, reminding yourself that "more" doesn't always equate to happiness.

8. Meditation Calms the Mind and Improves Focus

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.

Stress Reduction. Meditation provides a sense of calm, peace, and balance, even well after the meditation session is over. It clears away clutter in the mind, bringing clarity and focus into lives.

Memory and Learning. Meditation can have a positive and lasting impact on memory and learning processes. It can lead to increased gray matter in the hippocampus and other brain structures associated with learning and memory, while decreasing the density of gray matter in the amygdala, which correlates with reduced stress.

Inner Peace and Happiness. Meditation asks that we remain in the present and release judgment, past hurts, and negative thoughts and experiences, so we can find inner peace and achieve greater positivity and happiness.

9. Decisiveness Reduces Anxiety and Promotes Action

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.

Action Over Perfection. Indecision often stems from fear, driven by concern that we will make the “wrong” decision. Agonizing over the “correct” decision can cause a lot of wasted time, anxiety, and stress, and in some cases, diminished happiness and joy.

Benefits of Decisiveness. Even a perceived wrong decision can bring about better results than no decision at all. Making any decision provides benefits: you move in a direction, you learn more about yourself, and if the results of your decision don’t turn out as you had hoped, you can always change course.

Strategies for Decisiveness. Prioritize around your values, trust your intuition, reject the notion of perfection, outsource when necessary, streamline options, set a time limit, set parameters, become (a little) predictable, and have a contingency plan.

10. Green Tea: A Brain-Boosting Elixir

There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life.

Anti-Aging Powerhouse. Green tea is a powerhouse for anti-aging and has been linked to a diminished risk of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The polyphenols in green tea can enhance neurogenesis of the hippocampus, which is important to learning and memory.

Stress Relief. Green tea has also been shown to provide stress relief. Green tea consumption was inversely associated with psychological distress, and the polyphenols found in green tea have the power to raise levels of dopamine, a mood-boosting compound.

Enhanced Concentration. Green tea has caffeine, a known stimulant, but in much lower doses than a typical cup of coffee. The real magic in green tea, however, is that it uniquely contains the amino acid L-theanine, which has anti-anxiety effects and has been linked with enhanced mental alertness and attention.

11. See the Best in Others to Cultivate Positivity

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

Positive Influence. Finding the good in others, even when difficult, can prove to be beneficial: the more positives you see in others, the more you can see the positive in yourself. This boosts self-esteem and self-confidence, both of which are instrumental to success and happiness.

Overcoming Negativity Bias. We are predisposed to think negatively about our fellow man due to a "negativity bias." When we can overcome our negativity bias and see the good in others, it reaps amazing results.

Creating a Positive Cycle. When you expect the worst in others, they tend to fulfill those expectations. When you think positively, people tend to act more positively.

12. Reading for Pleasure Enhances Cognitive Function

I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.

Active Brain Engagement. Reading is an active process that engages several parts of the brain, demanding much more from us neurologically compared to other media. As a result, reading makes you smarter and keeps you smart as you get older, helping to protect against memory loss.

Stress Reduction. Reading has the power to reduce stress, whereas other forms of media tend to increase stress. Reading for a protracted period of time requires sustained attention with a contemplative attitude.

Creativity and Social Benefits. Reading enhances creativity by engaging our imagination and bringing characters, plots, and scenery to life in our minds. It also makes you a more informed and engaging person, providing new knowledge and insight to talk about with others.

Last updated: March 31, 2025