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How to reverse inexplicable mood drops
In previous posts, we saw that language choices profoundly influence our emotions and actions. Precisely because of that, language is one of the most powerful tools we have for generating internal transformation and retraining our mind-brain ecosystem towards achieving healthier thinking styles.
Sometimes, we might experience sudden, inexplicable drops in mood accompanied by difficult emotions such as sadness, worry, anxiety, or guilt. In these moments, even after revisiting our language, we may not be able to identify any specific thought causing the mood drop or any negative self-talk. What might explain our mood drop in such situations?
Some thoughts navigate at a subconscious level. They are the smugglers of your brainforest.
Some thoughts navigate at a subconscious level. They are the smugglers of your brainforest.
Some smugglers might use your paths to unhealthy destinations secretly, without your awareness. They might smuggle thoughts such as “I am a failure”, “I am not good at this”, “I am not good enough”, “I won’t manage”, “I can’t cope”… While these thoughts are inaudible, they can still profoundly affect your emotions and actions due to the interconnected nature of thoughts-language, emotions, and body-action. When the smugglers carrying loads of negativity repeatedly and frequently manage to use the pathways leading to unhealthy destinations in your brainforest, they can trigger sudden mood drops, and you might not be able to explain why or how this happened.
Other than mood drops, you might also experience the effects of these smugglers as a sense of rejecting yourself, or as if you are not being a good support to yourself… Any of these just seem to be happening beyond your control, as if you were hiding a part of yourself from yourself.
But how can you retrain the smugglers causing mood drops and self-rejection if you can’t hear what they say?
No need to panic, it’s just about understanding your mind-brain ecosystem.
How to reverse a mood drop caused by negative thoughts at a subconscious level
1. Acknowledge Every Element of Your Brainforest
First and foremost, it’s crucial to recognize and understand all the elements within your brainforest. The better you understand your mind-brain ecosystem, the greater harmony you can cultivate—even with the presence of smugglers 🙂 Your initial impulse might be to eliminate these smugglers since they seem to bring turmoil. However, as with conscious thoughts, eradication isn’t necessary; understanding is key.
The role of the smugglers is not to cause you pain. The smugglers just carry residual thoughts linked to past events, or things you or someone told you. Whether they smuggle positivity or negativity in the future will largely depend on whether you train your mind-brain ecosystem consciously in a healthy direction today. If you do the work today, you won’t need to do much about the smugglers tomorrow, as they will naturally start heading to pleasant destinations. Just let them be and do their function. As any other element in your brainforest, they have a reason to exist that contributes to the general functioning of your mind-brain ecosystem.
The configuration of the pathways in your brainforest is greatly influenced by the amount of traffic they receive.
2. Manage the Traffic on Your Brainforest Paths
The configuration of the pathways in your brainforest is greatly influenced by the amount of traffic they receive. The more often thoughts travel in a particular direction, the more your brain recognizes that destination as important, ensuring clear and direct access. To weaken the influence of smugglers, introduce as many new “excursionists” (positive thoughts) as possible along pathways leading to positive destinations.
The technique is simple: give yourself as many compliments as possible. Start with affirmations like “I am so good,” “Only I can achieve this,” “I am out of this world,” “I love myself so much,” “I am so amazing,” “I am so proud of myself,” “I look so pretty,” “I deserve everything I want!” It doesn’t matter if these affirmations feel unnatural at first, embrace the fake it till you make it approach without self-judgment. This strategy aims to reverse mood drops by outnumbering the negative smugglers with positive reinforcement. Imagine every negative smuggler carries a negative thought about you. If you can generate 30 positive thoughts, you effectively outnumber the negative ones, leading to noticeable mood improvements.
Try this experiment: Rate how you’re feeling on a scale from 1 to 10. Begin producing positive excursionists: “I am so good! I am amazing!” Each sentence counts as one. Can you come up with at least 30? Rate your mood again. While you may not leap from a 1 to a 10 just from this exercise, even a slight improvement (e.g., from a 6 to a 7) demonstrates the potential positive impact. Imagine the benefits of making this low-effort high-benefit technique a regular practice. Establishing this habit will also make it easier to uplift your mood whenever it drops, due to the familiarity and readiness for it. Your brain is like your clothes closet: it is easier to recover what’s on top and in everyday use than some forgotten shirt stored in the back of the top shelf.
Your brain is like your clothes closet: it is easier to recover what’s on top and in everyday use than some forgotten shirt stored in the back of the top shelf.
3. Engage your body
Your body is another powerful tool for influencing your emotions, and in situations where your mood drops, it can serve as effective CPR for self-rescue since it doesn’t require much cognitive effort.
Try this immediate action: jump 20 times, then dance to mood-lifting music, and sing. Evaluate your mood before and after, just as I suggested in previous steps. Notice any differences.
4. Address lifestyle choices potentially contributing to low mood
As you can suspect, lack of sleep, poor diet, alcohol abuse, overworking, external stressors, lack of natural light…makes it easier for the smugglers carrying negative loads to reach unpleasant destinations, as your rangers will lack energy to prevent their actions. If you find your mood suddenly drops, assess whether it could be related to any of these elements and make the necessary adjustments.
Sleep, improve your diet, walk more, spend more time outdoors! Then, check again to see if there is an improvement in your mood.
5. Have your contingency plan at reach
Finally, if you are prone to experience sudden mood drops, it might be a good idea to place a sticky note somewhere you can easily see that contains some key techniques that work for you, ready to activate your rescue strategy when needed.
Over time, as you continuously train your mind-brain ecosystem, the likelihood of experiencing these abrupt mood drops will diminish because you are progressively cleaning and bringing harmony within you.
There area more complex techniques to investigate and uncover the specific thoughts your smugglers carry. However, these initial steps provide a solid foundation for beginning to integrate your smugglers peacefully into your mind-brain ecosystem, ensuring they no longer disrupt your emotional balance.
Ready for a more intensive, fast, and effective process? Discover how the Conscious Self-Rewiring Coaching Method can accelerate your personal growth. Book a complimentary 30-minute discovery call with Dr. Laura to explore the Healthy Success Coaching program. Coaching sessions online. In-person coaching sessions in Dubai and the UAE.