Published on
Updated
Reading 2 min.
in collaboration with
Johanna Rozenblum (clinical psychologist)
Can an unpleasant event ruin your entire day? However, there is a way to find a smile and inner peace in just 10 minutes, according to a study. A tool to know to better regulate yourself.
A bad night, bad news, an unpleasant remark… there are many reasons that sometimes tarnish our day. But instead of dwelling on things for hours, did you know that there is a way to quickly get rid of a bad mood and get back into the flow of your day? A solution that aims to re-educate your thinking quickly.
10 minutes of daydreaming defuses negativity
It is a study carried out by researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands which looked at the relationship between mental wandering, that is to say daydreaming, and mood, in particular this way we dwell on negative thoughts. “Known as rumination, the individual’s thoughts become “sticky” (they don’t go away), occur frequently, focus on the past, and emphasize what the individual did wrong.specifies an article from Psychology Today dedicated to this study.
The researchers asked 100 people who were in a bad mood, or who had just carried out a stressful task:to extract a ‘positive rule of life’ and fantasize about an experience in a ‘dream world’ for 10 minutes”.
And surprise! After just ten minutes, the participants had shifted to a much more positive state of mind. “Negative mood and depressive thoughts could be partially countered by daydreaming. the authors conclude, seeing in it a possible mental re-education through positive imagination.
Good in his body, good in his head!
An inner journey accessible to all
For Johanna Rozenblum, clinical psychologist and member of our committee of experts, the daydreaming technique, accessible to all and simple to implement, can actually be deployed as soon as the need arises to regain your good mood.
“This is what we call the inner journey, also used in mindfulness or meditative practices. But this ability to generate pleasant images, sensations, emotions oneself allows you to reactivate a happy memory, and works indeed very good for promoting good humor and well-being, emotional balance” she admits.
“It is also an excellent way to regulate certain physiological manifestations linked to fear or stress, such as stomach aches or racing heart” she adds.
Two good reasons to always leave a little room for dreams, in a gloomy day.