Today, I’m pulling back the curtain on mindset shifts for lasting change. If you’re ready to unlock your potential and see what’s truly possible for you in terms of freedom from OCD, anxiety, and intrusive thoughts, this episode is for you. Changing your mindset can be a game changer, especially when you’re dealing with anxiety and intrusive thoughts. No, it’s not just about thinking positively; it’s about transforming how you perceive and respond to challenges. So, let’s dive into why mindset matters and how you can start shifting your perspective today.

Here’s a little preview of what we’ll cover:

• Why mindset is so powerful (and talking about a growth mindset vs. fixed mindset)
• Real life examples of the power of mindset shifts
• 4 Practical Tips for Making Mindset Shifts

Why Mindset is So Powerful

Your mindset is the lens through which you view the world and everything coming at you. It influences how you interpret events, react to challenges, and ultimately how you live your life. When you have a growth mindset—believing that you can develop your abilities through effort and learning—you’re more likely to embrace challenges and tackle ambiguous situations, even if it feels uncomfortable. With a growth mindset, you persist through setbacks and see failures as opportunities for change and growth.

On the other hand, a fixed mindset is the belief that your abilities are static and unchangeable. This mindset can hold you back because if you believe things are unchangeable, you’re more likely to avoid challenges and give up easily. A fixed mindset makes you feel threatened by the success of others, leading to a cycle of anxiety and avoidance. Shifting from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset is essential for achieving personal breakthroughs and lasting change.

Real-Life Examples of Mindset Shifts

Emma’s Story

Emma used to view her intrusive thoughts as evidence that something was fundamentally wrong with her. This fixed mindset kept her stuck in a cycle of anxiety and avoidance. Through our work together and inside my digital course, the OCD and Anxiety Recovery Blueprint, Emma learned to see her thoughts as just thoughts—a key principle in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). This mindset shift allowed her to engage more fully in her life and reduce her anxiety over time.

You see if things are just the way that they are and you’re not willing to see things differently, it’s going to be really difficult for you to change and adapt and to really get outside of your comfort zone and experience anything different because you are just so stubbornly stuck in the way that things have been, that how can you really expect yourself to change, right?

Jason’s Journey

Jason struggled with social anxiety and believed he was inherently bad at social interactions. This belief made him avoid social situations altogether. By adopting a growth mindset, Jason started to see social interactions, a skill that he could improve with practice, that this isn’t something that he’s just born with and stuck with, but it’s with practice, something that can be improved. And this shift in mindset gave Jason and could hopefully give you the courage to face your fears and gradually become more comfortable in social situations or whatever it is that you’re struggling with.

4 Practical Tips for Making Mindset Shifts

Challenge Your Negative Beliefs

We all have negative beliefs about ourselves from time to time. I want you to take one negative belief that you have about yourself. It could be something like, “I’m not good at handling anxiety,” or “I’m just going to be this way forever.” Then I want you to challenge that belief by finding evidence to the contrary.

One way that I do that is I often will ask myself, “What would I tell my son?” or “What kind of advice or encouragement would I give to my son?” So if I say that I’m just a bad person and I’m just fundamentally a bad person and there’s something wrong with me, I wouldn’t want my son to say that about himself. I would never be okay with him telling himself that. And so what I would want him to tell himself instead, or what I would tell him instead, is that “Absolutely not. You’re not just a bad person. We’re all inherently good. Sometimes we make bad decisions and sometimes we don’t act necessarily accordingly with what’s good in that moment, but we’re all doing the best that we possibly can”.

By me trying to challenge that by saying, what would I say to Eli? Or what would I want Eli to say to himself? I can see things a different way instead of just continuing to get sucked into that stubborn vortex of that fixed mindset. So you’re going to challenge that belief by finding evidence to the contrary.

For instance, maybe you recall the times where you actually handled your anxiety, even if it wasn’t pretty, even if it wasn’t perfect, even if they were small victories, you’re challenging that negative belief that you have about yourself and just bringing some realism to it all.

Practice Self-Compassion

When you encounter setbacks or make mistakes, instead of beating yourself up, I want you to remind yourself that everyone struggles, that you are part of this human life and that everyone is struggling, that mistakes are part of the learning process. And just be kind to yourself when you encounter these things. That self-compassion can really help you stay resilient and help you stay motivated, help you stay the course because no one has ever emotionally beaten themselves into change.

Embrace Challenges

As difficult as it might be, I want you to look at challenges as opportunities to grow rather than obstacles to avoid or to get your way out of. So when you face a difficult situation, I want you to ask yourself, “What can I learn from this? Why might this be a good thing in the long run?” This mindset shift can really transform how you approach challenges and ultimately, over time, make you more resilient. Because the goal isn’t to never have challenges. The goal isn’t to never have anxiety or to never be uncomfortable. It’s to get better at handling those things when they come up.

Set Growth-Oriented Goals

Focus on setting goals that emphasize growth in learning rather than just outcomes. So for instance, instead of setting a goal to never feel anxious, maybe you set a goal for yourself to learn new strategies to manage anxiety. Then, instead of focusing just on the end goal, you’re actually focused on the progress and the improvement and the steps that you’re taking in the long run. So you’re actually focusing on the journey rather than the outcome.

Join the Seven Day Breakthrough Challenge

If you’re loving the idea of making these mindset shifts, join my Seven Day Breakthrough Challenge. This is a seven-day video and email challenge designed to guide you through small, manageable tasks that will build your resilience and transform your mindset. Each day, you’ll receive emails and videos with challenges and assignments grounded in evidence-based practices like exposure and response prevention (ERP) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).

Through this challenge, you’ll learn how to face your fears, embrace discomfort, and see your anxiety in a new light. The tasks are designed to be consistent and manageable, leading to big results over time. The next challenge kicks off with a live Q&A kickoff call on August 14th, with the daily challenges starting on August 19th. To learn more and sign up, click here. It’s just $17 and will help you perceive and respond to challenges differently, making lasting changes in your life.

My Challenge For You (With These Mindset Shifts)

Start by identifying one negative belief about yourself and challenge it this week. Practice self-compassion and embrace at least one challenge as an opportunity for growth. If you’re ready to take these mindset shifts to the next level, join us for the Seven Day Breakthrough Challenge. It’s the perfect way to start making those small, impactful changes. Until next time, keep pushing forward and remember: you’ve got this. Keep doing all the hard things. Bye for now.

Keep doing all the hard things. Bye for now.

👏 Unlock your free 40-minute video on “5 Must-Know Strategies for Handling Anxiety and Intrusive Thoughts”: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://jennaoverbaughlpc.com/strategies⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

🧠 Start your transformation today with the Mental Compulsion Mini Course referenced in this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://jennaoverbaughlpc.com/mental-compulsions⁠

💪 Ready to conquer OCD/anxiety? Explore The OCD and Anxiety Recovery Blueprint – with or without a therapist: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://jennaoverbaughlpc.com/blueprint⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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