Episode Description
In this Follow-Up episode, Dr. Mona draws on her own past experiences with burnout and mental health struggles to offer practical tools for turning around overwhelming, negative days. Acknowledging that bad days are bound to happen, she shares how to break out of a negative spiral, regulate your nervous system, and reset your mindset before a tough day ends—or grant yourself permission to call it a "throwaway day" and start fresh tomorrow.
What’s in this episode:
Accepting Hard Feelings: Why resisting anxiety, sadness, or frustration makes it persist, and how simply acknowledging your emotions helps you move through them faster.
Adjusting Expectations vs. Reality: How to reduce internal friction when a day isn't going as planned, recognizing that difficult seasons are temporary.
The "5-Year Rule": A practical brain hack to determine if a stressor is worth dwelling on, limiting your focus to five minutes if it won't matter in five years.
Deep Core Breathing: How stress causes shallow breathing and how deep belly breaths regulate your body.
Reframing Thoughts: How taking control of your internal monologue breaks the cycle of negative thinking.
Physical & Environmental Resets: Quick actionable steps to shift your energy, including changing your scenery, getting endorphins through music or laughter, and using physical touch like a hug.
The "Cancel Out" Journaling Practice: An end-of-day exercise to reframe tough moments by writing down what caused anxiety alongside a positive counterexample or lesson learned.
Want more? Listen to the full, original episode.
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