Your Mindset Matters - Recovery Compass

Introduction to Mindsets

I have seen “Mindset” as a popular topic in self-help communities for quite some time and it is true, your mindset matters! How you THINK about any topic or category will play a significant role in how you will experience it on a psychological and physical level. Mindsets are core assumptions that we have about a particular thing, topic, or category. It may be useful to ask yourself a few simple questions before continuing.

Do you view stress as good or bad?

Do you view healthy foods as satisfying or unsatisfying, and to the contrary, do you view sugary and unhealthy foods as satisfying or unsatisfying?

What is your mindset about exercise?

“Stress Is Adaptive” Mindset

Stress has been demonized throughout our culture which has reinforced the idea for many people that “stress is bad”. This, of course, leads to people doing everything in their power to avoid stress despite the fact that it’s an inevitable factor of life. Acute stress serves as a vital component of our survival toolkit. It’s the driving force that propels us to conquer deadlines and energizes our immune system to deploy white blood cells in defense against diseases and infections.

Additionally, stress has a key role in waking us up in the morning. The rise in cortisol levels we experience kickstarts our day by helping us shake off sleep and gear up for what lies ahead. Rigorous studies show that people who adopt a ‘stress is adaptive’ mindset experience increased drive and motivation, enjoy improved emotional and mental well-being, and receive better appraisals from others in work settings, among other benefits. Alia Crum, who is one of the leading scientists on mindsets said it best, “Stress is inevitable when you’re living a life that’s connected with things you care about. And learning how to embrace it, learning how to work with it is really what helps us thrive and grow and perform at our highest level.”

Acute stress also provides other benefits such as but not limited to:

Enhances performance and productivity

Increases brain processing speed

Improves memory

Can improve health, vitality, and immunity

Physiological and psychological toughening

The Hotel Worker Study

The impact of mindset on diet and exercise is profound, as demonstrated in a study involving 84 female hotel employees. Initially, none of the participants were aware that the physical activity required by their job exceeded the surgeon general’s recommendations. When researchers informed half of these employees about the intensity of their daily activities, it led to significant health improvements. Just four weeks after this intervention, this group not only perceived themselves as more active but also showed measurable health benefits. They experienced weight loss, reductions in blood pressure and body fat, and improvements in both waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index. Conversely, the control group—those who were not given this information—continued their usual routines and saw no such benefits. The only difference between the two was awareness: a shift in mindset was all it took to transform their health outcomes dramatically. This underscores the powerful, often underrated influence of simply understanding and rethinking our daily activities.

The Milkshake Study

In another compelling demonstration of mindset’s influence, the same researcher conducted a nutritional study where participants actively consumed two types of milkshakes, believing them to differ significantly. One was described as a high-fat, high-calorie ‘indulgent’ shake, while the other was a low-fat, low-calorie ‘sensible’ shake. The researcher then actively measured the participants’ physiological responses over several weeks. In reality, both shakes were identical in terms of calories and nutritional content. Yet, those who believed they had consumed the “indulgent” shake reported feeling significantly more satisfied and showed a greater reduction in the hunger hormone ghrelin than those who thought they drank the “sensible” shake. This experiment underscores how perception—not just actual nutritional content—can dramatically influence the body’s physical response to what it’s ingesting.

Concluding Thoughts

Mindset influences every facet of our lives, shaping our behaviors and overall well-being. It’s essential to ask yourself: Are your mindsets helping or hindering you? While it’s true that you can’t fool yourself into thinking a Big Mac is nutritious, it’s also critical to understand the impact of chronic stress. Chronic stress is harmful; it can lead to serious health issues, including heart disease, depression, and a weakened immune system. Therefore, while some stress is beneficial and can even be harnessed to improve our health—such as the controlled stress from taking ice baths, practicing Wim Hof breathing techniques, or using saunas—it’s important to recognize that long-term stress should be managed and minimized.

I challenge you to look for certain beliefs or mindsets you carry that do not serve you and work diligently on shifting them to more adaptive ones. Do you believe people are not trustworthy? Do you believe that healthy food is gross and unsatisfying? Does going to work or an AA meeting suck? Are you just, “not a morning person”? What’s your mindset about life as a whole? The stories you tell yourself around these mindsets will correlate strongly with the way you experience them in real-time. Make sure the stories are exciting and encouraging. Stress is a non-negotiable aspect of life, the only thing you get to decide is how you choose to deal with it.