How the Right Mindset Can Boost Your Mental Health

Perception and mental health are related. With the optimal mindset, we can support and lift our mental health.

What Is a Mindset?

Think of filters for images you post on social media. One filter might make an image appear pleasant. Another could make it seem disturbing.

Human mindsets are similar. Your mindset impacts how you interpret events in your life. Those can be everyday events and major, rare events.

Which Mindset Boosts Mental Health?

People either have fixed mindsets or growth mindsets. In brief, a person with a fixed mindset believes life simply happens to them, and they have little or no control over their circumstances. This is a pessimistic outlook on life.

Alternatively, a person with a growth mindset believes they have the power to transform their circumstances. This outlook is optimistic.

Growth Mindsets Are Useful Throughout Life

Recent research studies have shown that you can benefit from a growth mindset at nearly any stage of life.

An Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health study published in 2017 looked at the effect of educating adolescents about growth mindsets for a single, 30-minute intervention session. During follow-up, “Intervention group youths also experienced more rapid improvements in parent-reported depression, youth-reported depression, and perceived behavioral control across the follow-up period, compared to control group youths,” the study’s team noted.

On the other end of the spectrum, researchers published findings from two studies about growth mindset interventions in older adults in The International Journal of Aging and Human Development in 2023. That research team submitted, “Our findings highlight the potential role of growth mindset in supporting positive learning cycles for cognitive gains in older adulthood.”

How Can You Nurture a Growth Mindset in Yourself?

Importantly, fixed mindsets are more common, but growth mindsets are healthier. You can develop a growth mindset over time:

• Learn to view failures and shortcomings as chances to grow.
• Try new things beyond your comfort zone.
• Curate a personal sense of curiosity.

Do You Need Help With Getting Into a Growth Mindset Right Now?

Currently, you may be in a place where developing a growth mindset seems unrealistic. Reading this far may have even caused anxiety within you. Your doubt and anxiety may be related to treatment-resistant depression.

We specialize in addressing that type of recurring depression at WIN-TMS. To talk with us about our modern, drug-free therapy available at our Milwaukee-area clinics, reach out today.