3 Tiny Mental Habits I Practice Every Morning – In Less Than 5 Minutes

When it comes to self-improvement, it’s not just about changing our physical habits but also our mental habits.

In what direction does your mind naturally tend to go? Do you focus more on the “positive” or “negative” in any given situation? Do you pay more attention to your “strengths” or your “weaknesses?”

Happy and successful people tend to share similar beliefs and attitudes that help fuel their happiness and success. Some may have picked up these beliefs naturally (through their biology or upbringing), while others have had to put conscious work into cultivating them.

To change your mindset and beliefs, it takes practice and repetition. “Mental habits” are just like “physical habits” in the sense that we need to actively put in work if we want to change them.

On a neurological level, your “mental habits” are the pathways in your brain that neurons tend to fire in. The common saying, “neurons that fire together, wire together” is a great illustration of how “mental habits” form. If you want to create new neural pathways, you need to practice thinking in new directions.

Like with any habit change, it is often best to start small. This is why I recommend people start with tiny 5 minute exercises to help shift their mindset and thought patterns.

Here are 3 tiny “mental habits” that I practice every morning – and they literally only take a few seconds each.

3 Tiny Mental Habits I Practice Every Morning

These habits are super simple and commonsense, but I’ve been making them an essential part of my morning routine for about a full year now. I’ve noticed a significant boost in my overall positivity, motivation, and energy levels. Try them out for yourself!

• Reflect on one thing you are grateful for. One of the most basic “mental habits” is to be more grateful. Identify at least ONE thing you appreciate every day. It could be anything, big or small: your family, your friends, your health, your job, or even something really simple such as a tasty lunch, a good song, or a pleasant moment in nature.
• Identify one strength of yours. Another essential “mental habit” is to focus more on your strengths. Every morning I identify and reflect on ONE positive aspect of myself (such as “kind,” “hard-working,” or “intelligent.”) I try to think of something different each day, but it’s OK to repeat yourself sometimes, especially if you can remind yourself of a recent example of you embodying that positive trait. For example, if I had a really good conversation with someone yesterday, I may reflect on “friendly” or “social” the next morning.
• Reframe one negative thought. The last tiny “mental habit” that I practice is I try to reframe at least ONE negative thought that’s been buzzing in my head lately. Reframing (or “cognitive restructuring“) is an essential tool for being able to change your mindset in any given moment and sharpen your ability to see the “good” in everything. For example, I’ll reframe a negative thought such as “I had a bad date because no one likes me” into something more positive and constructive like, “I just need to be patient until I find someone who clicks with me.”

For positive minds, these habits are natural and automatic to them. But before you can get to that point, you have to consciously put in the time to practice them even if it’s just a few minutes every day.

Small habits can sometimes be deceptively small. They can seem too easy and trivial, so we forget that even making the tiniest changes can require a bit of planning and effort.

Here are strategies for building these tiny habits into your daily routine:

• Create a “morning ritual.” Start building a morning ritual that energizes both your body and mind. You can even combine these “mental habits” with everyday activities like drinking coffee, brushing your teeth, taking a shower, eating breakfast, or driving to work. Remember, they only take 5 minutes.
• Add them to your daily checklist. When things are so small that we take them for granted, it’s best to just write them into a daily checklist so you don’t forget. It’ll also serve as a consistent reminder that you should do your tiny mental habits – plus it feels good to check them off once you do them.
• Take advantage of nudges. “Nudges” are small ways of changing our environment to influence our habits and behaviors. For example, setting an alert on your phone or leaving a note somewhere you’ll see it every day (such as on the fridge, coffee machine, or bathroom mirror) are great ways to remind yourself to do a new behavior and give yourself that extra boost.
• Gamify your life. I’ve been experimenting a lot with gamification lately and it’s helped me with multiple new behaviors, including these tiny mental habits. I’m using an app called Habitica where you find bosses and collect items, but the only way to do it is by completing certain habits that you set for yourself to do. It’s a fun way to build new habits and make the self-improvement process more engaging.

Starting small is key but these strategies can help make habit change even easier. I recommend you choose at least one of them to help you build your tiny “mental habit” routine.

One last reminder that this simple exercise only takes 5 minutes. And while it may seem small, it can actually lead to some big changes in your mindset in the long-term.

Try it out for yourself and see how you feel!

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