No, It's Not Your "Mom Brain"...

But something's definitely up these days. Let's call it extreme “cognitive dissonance”--the state of having two or three (10?) contradictory ideas in your head at the same time...all while trying to make peace with it.

"Cog fog" for short. Having worked at a few start-ups, I’m generally comfortable with ambiguity, but--whew--we're in unique times when sooooooo many ideas seem to be at war with each other.

Know what I say to this cog fog? Let's turn our mental health into our mental wellth (from hell to well).

First, we need to remember that dissonance isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Recognizing when our beliefs and behaviors are in conflict — or recognizing when two beliefs seem to oppose one another — helps us parse out and better understand our values and what matters most to us. This helps us build trust in ourselves and our decision-making. Go us!

Buuuuuuut spotting dissonance in our own lives can also be painful, embarrassing, and anxiety-inducing.

So what's one step you can take when you're in a mental tug-of-war? Change how you perceive your actions. By altering the way you remember what happened, you can talk yourself into believing that your actions weren’t in so much opposition to your beliefs.

Here's an example: Let’s say you’re a fervent environmentalist, but you buy individually packaged meals as you complete an elimination diet to deal with that pesky inflammation that seems to have taken over your bodymind. You might rationalize this behavior you know is not helping the environment by telling yourself it’s okay if you do it only occasionally (it's only 4 weeks of your life) or by considering the other actions you take as more important (i.e., "When I feel better, I'll have fewer aches and more energy so I can volunteer to plant trees in my community"). Buying those packaged meals and your beliefs still may contradict one another, but you no longer struggle with that opposition...so you protect yourself from the stress that the conflict likely would've caused.

Simple? Yes. Easy? No.

Groundbreaking? No. Powerful? Yes.

You’re likely facing a dizzying array of tough decisions these days. And stress is no joke, period. Especially during a pandemic. This method helps you align your beliefs, values, and actions (without conflict), so you can get to a more supportive self state...so you can move from mentally weary to mentally wellthy.

How might you adopt this curiosity-filled lens of hope to your life this week? Experiment with it...and let me know how it goes for you!