You Can Shift Your Mood Fast By Changing The Song You Play In Your Mind

Your mind is always talking. When that inner voice turns heavy, anxious, and relentless, it can feel like you are trapped in the same chorus on repeat. We are therapists and hypnotherapists, and we break down a simple but powerful idea: changing your thoughts changes your mental health, especially when you learn to shift your internal dialogue on purpose.

We start with a short reading from our book, Stress Free in Three Minutes, using “voices in music” as a metaphor for self talk. Some thoughts are heavy notes that drag you down, and some are light notes that help you breathe again. From there, we talk about rumination, why adults replay mistakes long after the moment ends, and what toddlers can teach us about mindfulness and the present moment. Kids fall, cry, recover, and try again. That ability to reset is not childish, it is resilience.

We also get practical about stress reduction: if a problem is solvable, take action and stop procrastinating. If it is not solvable right now, you can still choose peace, calm your nervous system, and let time do some of the work. Along the way, we share a real story about a family relationship that healed unexpectedly, plus a vivid “weeds and thistles” example of creative problem-solving that turns challenges into strength.

If you want tools for anxiety relief, self-compassion, and a kinder inner voice you can access quickly, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who is stuck in their head, and leave us a review with the one “lighter note” you want to practice this week.

Transcript

Why Thoughts Shape Mental Health

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Changing your thoughts and how easily uh you can also change your mental health by changing your thoughts. Yeah, by changing your internal dialogue by what you're saying to yourself. That's what we're going to be talking about today in this week's episode of Get Real with the English system. Mind health and anxiety. And we are therapists, hypnotherapists to be precise, and we're here to help you. So today we're going to be reading a short little story from our book, Stress Free in Three Minutes. Voices in Music.

unknown 0:40

Okay.

Toddlers Show Present Moment Resilience

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Change your thoughts as you listen to music, as you make music in your mind of the flattering kind. As you play a song to yourself with a sweet melody. A chorus that inspires and makes you thrive and grow. Allow the notes to come to you like a poem would. With no trouble at all. Let go of the heavier notes. Now, those notes that drag you down. You no longer need them now. Light and airy music floods your mind, creating new depths of happiness and ease. These are the notes that make voices in your mind of the sweet and flattering kind, allowing you to grow with each new note and in tune with the voices in the music. It would be nice if we can change our internal dialogue like voices in the music. And let go of the heavier thoughts that we can do. Yes, absolutely. Those heavy thoughts that are no no, not really necessary. No, and with problems. Some problems can be tackled and you can like take action. But other problems, it's just best just to let them go and they'll sort themselves out. Well, and if they don't, they don't. Well, there's lots of lots and lots of challenges that are going to come to us every single day. Just as being alive and being human beings, we have these challenges ever since we're tiny, really. We do. You think about it, we have to learn how to walk, and that's pretty tough. Learn how to talk. Learn how to talk, learn how to hold a spoon. There's so many challenges, we just can't remember all those challenges we've already overcome. We just simply don't remember them because we just become competent at doing them. We don't actually see like learning to walk as a problem when we're little. No, it's just a small challenge. Yeah. I think we do because if you see toddlers how sometimes they cry and are very frustrated when they fall down, or if you remember your daughter when she couldn't ride the tricycle, she couldn't figure out how to go in a straight line. She would simply go nuts.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Because she would keep on banging against this wall, and I remember saying, Look, it's okay, darling, you just have to go straight. Do you remember it? On that little balcony you used to have.

Quick Resets With Songs And Movement

SPEAKER_01 3:19

So I do think there's a lot of frustration when we're tiny as well. But our parents and obviously our caretakers help us overcome it. But at the same time, that yes, I think we do go through a lot of challenges that we simply do no longer remember now because for now, for us, it's easy, unless obviously there are times when you have like an illness, and then you have to go back to square one, like there are people that have had strokes, like our mum did. Yeah. Then you have to go back to learning all of these things again, holding a spoon, learning how to be how to talk again. Those are unfortunate circumstances, but they you But do you think the children, um like very, very, very young children, do you think the why that why it's easier for them in a way is because they're actually living in the present. So when when they can't, you know, turn around on their tricycle or whatever, they're not after when the when they finish riding their bike, they're not thinking about, oh no, I was so stupid I couldn't turn around on my tricycle. That's a very good point. There is I I there isn't that kind of reasoning. Yes, it's more like with um they are in the present, yes. That that is something that we lose uh the ability to be in as we grow older. And uh that's part of our it's just the way we are, neuro neurologically built. Yes, we do tend to lose that ability to just be present. So you fall off the tricycle, you cry, you have a little moan, then the next you're you're distracted by the next thing. I'm hungry now. Okay, you eat a lovely dinner and then you'll go and then you'll have a nap. And that's like a toddler's life, isn't it? You know, it's food and and water and whatever. And it's very much like how our pets live. Yeah, but they're not psychologically like tormenting themselves with the problem once it's finished. No, and it would it's a new day, it's a new thing, it's a new challenge, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Next day you'll be back there trying again, or they'll be back there, they've forgotten that they've bumped their head on that the angle of the table, for example, and they'll be at it again because that's how we're built to continue to be resilient, to continue to do that, and not to be weighed down by past errors and past mistakes. I think I think that would be brilliant if we could all live like that. But that's what we have to learn to do, isn't it? We have to aim to remember what we used to be like, yeah. And to try and remember how we used to live. Because I think it is easier to do than I mean it's easier to say than do. It's easier said than done, as I said. Yeah, as I say. But I think if we make a conscious effort to like when we know, when we realise that we're like ruminating on a problem or you know, getting really bogged down by it, if we listen, if we listen to ourselves and think, okay, how am I going to change this now? And then you you could you can do it today by by changing that the the music that you're playing. So even physically listening to a new song. Oh, you mean actually putting a jolly tune on feeling sad, put a favourite song on the on the playlist to feel better. Yeah, you can also do that. Yeah, that that can that's a very quick change of state. You know, so change how you're actually feeling or go and do something, like take a walk, do something physical to actually change the way, you know, just similar similarly to what you how you would help a toddler, you would help them maybe try and by a distraction, as I said before. You would try and distract them and then say, hey, let's do something else for a bit if you see they're getting really overwhelmed and frustrated. Yeah. So to break that pattern of uh like destructive behaviour. Yeah, exactly, yeah, of overwhelming. Yeah, that that that is a very, very good point, actually. We can do that with ourselves, we can realise we're going into this tunnel of um just frustration and uh anger, and we can stop ourselves and think, okay, what would I do as a two-year-old?

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Probably drop whatever I was doing and go off and have a have a nap. It probably wouldn't be bad for us. And I know we're joking, and I know that there we we are obviously we're adults and we have bank statements and lots of stuff that we've got.

When Problems Resolve Without You

Turning Weeds Into Strength

Practicing Kind Eyes Toward Yourself

Subscribe Message And Support

SPEAKER_01 8:12

I mean, I was I was talking to this a friend of ours the other day, and she was saying, because I said sometimes you can help with problems. Problems, if you can sort them out, you do it, and you and it really helps you instead of procrastinating if you can actually sort a problem out. But unfortunately, some problems you just can't sort out, or you don't know how to, or you haven't got the tools, and then sometimes if you just say, Okay, I can't do anything about that, but I'm gonna make peace with this problem, yes, and I'm gonna be calm and you know, just go about my life. And she was saying to me, she said, actually, that's that's funny that you should say that because that's what actually happened to me with my relationship with my brother. She said she had a very difficult relationship with her brother, and practically they didn't they didn't talk to each other because she said that her father always used to, she was a favourite child, and he would always be praising her and like you know, having words with her brother and not praising him, tell him and criticizing him and telling him. But she said that and so because of that relationship that they had in the family dynamic, they actually didn't talk to each other and they weren't close to each other at all. But she said, funnily enough, when her father passed away, when he actually died, her brother suddenly became really close to her. He would phone her and he would talk to her, and he does now. And she said, and our relationship has got really close and really good. And she said that's an example where it just the problem just sorted itself out by something else, you know, happening. A chain of events. Well, yeah, the death of her father. So she could have never been. There was no more rivalry, yeah. There was no more rivalry because he was a catalyst of everything, basically. Well, at least her brother saw it that way. He felt that as long as the father was there. He didn't realise that this I'm sure Control was unaware. Obviously, she said she was unaware, but she said it came as a lovely gift and surprise at this point. To find out her brother came back. And they've got a lovely relationship now, she said. So she said that's where a problem just kind of sorted itself out without us having to to do anything. Just life happened. Life happened and that happened. The course, the natural course of life, yeah. Well, I mean, obviously, yes. That is a particular event. There's so many challenges that we just can't really do much about at all. So we just have to live them and and and then enjoy what we get around us for the present moment and what's around us. You're absolutely right. This is just full of them. So, what can we do? We have to remember in the present and enjoy the present day, really. Live moment to moment and yes, deal with our issues and our problems because obviously we're not saying just put everything away and live in La La Land. No, and don't deal with anything. No, deal with what you can. Yeah, you if you have uh like I don't know, financial worries or or or health worries, don't just procrastinate. Procrastinate, deal with them, you know, book the doctor's appointment, go and sort something out with your bank or whoever's lending you the money or whatever. But in the end, in the end, then that's it. You've done your bit, so you've done what you can, but then take a deep breath in and say, I've done everything I can, and now it's time for me just to be at peace with with with what's with my life and my surroundings, yeah, and allow the lighter notes to enter your mind because we we we cannot live with just the heavy notes in our mind. We cannot we're not designed to be that way. We we are designed to be to be happy basically and to be content. I I really do believe that. Yes, because I think human beings if we were designed to be, we wouldn't survive as a species. No, if we didn't have the happy moments and the and the good times. If everything was always negative, there'd be no point, would there? But we I'm sure we wouldn't have survived as a species if it had been all black, if everything had been negative. You mean we wouldn't have the resilience, we wouldn't have had the resilience or the want to procreate or relationships or anything, the desire. No, no, all to continue life, like desire and happiness and uh strength, and the these are all the positive qualities that make us say yes. Want to go on with life, want to go on day worth living. Yes, you're absolutely right, yeah. Without those things, you think, well, there's no point, is there? No, you have to you have to look and cultivate, like what they say always, your garden is how you you can see the weeds, but then you can also eat the weeds sometimes, like the dandelions. They're apparently they're very healthy for you. You find creative solutions. Like the story that you wrote in the cattle story, yeah. How the farmer the farmer found a very creative solution for his cattle. Yes. That he made them eat thistles. Yes, exactly. Yeah, he made them eat thistles, but he had this massive field, and everyone around him told him, Don't buy that land, because it's no good. You can't you can't actually have build a farm here, there's no way your cattle can eat that. And yet he managed to introduce the the thistle diet into which is apparently is actually true because I really researched it before writing this little story, and apparently he managed to make a successful business with his cattle eating thistles. And and everyone around him was surprised. And the cattle thrived on the thistles, they thrived because they ate the weeds and the thistles, and there were lots of healthy benefits in them. Can't remember all of it about it, but all the landowners nearby were quite surprised. They were, they were very surprised by what he did. So sometimes being innovative and actually being finding these, being able to pivot and find a different solution. So you're stuck there, instead of just bashing against the wall, thinking, Well, a little turn here, a little turn there, what can I do? You don't give up, you turn around, you think of something else. And when you allow your mind to have that kind of freedom, and you actually think, pivot now, pivot now, you you begin to move it mentally in your mind, you'll find this beautiful solution that you would have never ever thought of before. If you don't allow those words to come to you, I think if you don't allow your mind to smile, you won't be able to try. But even if you have very difficult terrible circumstances around you, but you allow your mind to smile a few times throughout the day, you will find the resilience and the strength to see what the beauty and the goodness around you. Well said, yes. Finding the difference, finding the beauty around you it's fundamental. Because I mean they always say it, don't they? They say that people that like are in really desperate circumstances, they might just have one smile from a p from a stranger, and it it it just might, you know, it clicks in and it changes their day. It it it gives them the the the the strength to continue and to to say yes, this this is life is you know beautiful, it's worth living. Absolutely, because life according to us is definitely worth living. Very much so. Challenges and hurdles that come our way, we do like to find clear. Yes, we really do, yes, we really do. Just like the cattle the weeds, and that not only did they eat the weeds on the his land that on the on the yet that he also he was paid to hire them out, he would hire them out, and everyone else would use his cattle to to remove their weeds, so it was like a natural weed. Where he and then plus he would also be able to, you know, have really healthy cattle that would produce the best quality milk ever and butter because of the use of the weeds. So sometimes, you know, the weeds aren't bad, is what we're trying to get to. It might sound a bit complex, but this is ultimately what we're saying is that the weeds and the challenges in your life are all feedback and they somehow you don't want to live them. Just like when you're little and you don't want to fall down, you want to be able to walk in a straight line, but you can't, you look like a little drunk toddler, you know, they're so cute, but they don't think they're cute, they're trying to walk in that straight line. But you know, I think if we look at ourselves sometimes and we think of ourselves like these little toddlers making our way in the world, we'll be kinder to ourselves and be able to have that kind of little smile and say, Okay, I'm gonna be kind to myself. I am, this is a new venture for me, just like when I was tiny, and I'm doing this now, and I will be kind. And if nobody else has kind eyes for me, I'll have my own kind eyes inside, and I'll have my kind eyes for other people as well. Exactly, and I can appreciate their new adventures and what they're going on, what they're living through in their life. So I think we'll leave you with that for a moment. Yes, with being kind to yourself and hear these sweet and flattering notes in your mind. Yes, and allow those heavier ones to float away and drop. We do love hearing from you. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can also see the video and come leave us a message wherever you listen to your podcast. You can text us, and if you'd like to support the show, you can also support the show. Love from the English sisters. Bye bye. Bye soon.