Transform Your Mindset: Rituals for Growth to Use This Summer

Without the right mindset, it’s hard to make any sort of progress in our therapy journey. Even if we do all the worksheets, attend all the therapy sessions, and soak up all the sunshine in St. Petersburg, we’ll still need to authentically put it into practice every day. The right counselor can make a huge difference, but to unlock our highest potential, we need to become the right patient. 

The secret to making meaningful changes to our mindset is changing our behavior, but changing your behavior without guidelines is complicated to understand and difficult to execute. So how do we give ourselves the tools to meaningfully change our everyday behavior?

“First we make our habits, then our habits make us.” – John Dryden

How Do I Change My Behavior?

Acting differently is far more complicated than just deciding you don’t want to be that way anymore. Human beings act out of habit more than anything else, so to change our behavior, we need to change the things we do and think about each day. 

How can we start?

• Change The Way You Speak To Yourself. Our thoughts have a powerful impact on our behavior. If we’re constantly berating and talking down to ourselves, it will inevitably have a negative impact on our behavior. If we can change the way we talk to and perceive ourselves, we can change the way we behave.
• Address Your Old Wounds. If you’re carrying trauma around the traditions you kept in childhood, that can be a huge challenge when it comes to changing your behavior in adulthood. Examining your generational trauma (the painful traditions passed down through our families since the beginning of time) can help you to figure out which rituals can serve you and which rituals are better left forgotten.
• Understand Why Tradition And Ritual Make Us Feel Better. Our behavior has a huge impact on our thoughts, and our rituals are the behaviors we place the highest importance upon. When our traditions are misaligned with our values, we act out behaviors that are misaligned with the life we want to live. But with the right rituals, we can encourage the thoughts and activities that are important to us. 

How Therapy Can Help You Transform Your Mindset

When we’re caught in a mess of unhealthy habits, the prospect of change can feel like a fantasy, or even a nightmare. When we’re in the habit of doing things one way, we might never consider the possibility that we are doing something wrong. As the old adage goes: When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Working with a therapist is one of the most powerful tools we have when it comes to breaking the cycle. The right counselor can help us spot our blindspots and find a new way of seeing and doing that serves us rather than holding us back.

• Therapy Can Help You Find Joy In The Everyday. The best day of your life could go completely unappreciated if you lack the tools to find joy in the life you already have. All of us have an ideal life that we want to have someday, but the right therapist can help you to want the life you have.
• The Right Therapist Will Help You Manage Your Burnout. Life can be exhausting, especially if you’re burning the candle at both ends. We burn ourselves to the wick without even realizing it. Working with a therapist can help us stay mindful and reach our goals in a sustainable way (read: without getting burnt out).
• Therapy Can Help You Start Fresh. The sunk-cost fallacy is real. Our minds are hardwired to stay committed to our behaviors once we’ve sunk enough time, effort, or resources into them. Working with the right therapist can help you to see your old behaviors with new eyes, and find a fresh start for you and the life you want to have.

How Ritual Can Become DIY Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

When life feels overwhelming, rituals can act as anchor points throughout the day. Over time, your brain begins to associate your rituals with stability and safety. When done consistently, they can help you shift your negative thoughts, create structure in your day, and feel more emotionally balanced because you have created these moments of peace that you can rely on even when things are hectic or uncertain. 

• Make Time For Self-Care When You Feel Off. Even the roof on your house needs a change every few years, and your mind is far more sensitive to its environment than your roof. Making the time for self-care, especially when you’re feeling sick, sad, or burnt out, is absolutely necessary. 
• Have Rituals That Manage Your Anxiety. What are you doing each day to bring your anxiety to a manageable level? Are you connecting with your higher power? What are you doing to relax? If the answer is nothing, reconsider. Your rituals are what ground you throughout the day, and become something that you can rely on.
• Make Art Your Ritual. Artistic expression can help us to work through the problems we’re too overwhelmed or confused to solve through conventional means. In this sense, making the time for art in your life is imminently practical and a highly efficient use of your time. It helps bring light to what is hidden without words.

Affordable Counseling In St. Petersburg, FL. 

Alli Cravener is a counseling intern based in St. Petersburg who empowers her clients to make meaningful changes in their thoughts, behaviors, and emotional lives. She is passionate about guiding people through the process of compassionately bringing their shadows to light, helping them embrace their full, authentic selves without judgment.

Drawing from Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, creative therapies, and Jungian symbolism, Alli supports her clients in reconnecting with their inner wisdom and creative spark. Her approach is both grounded and intuitive, blending evidence-based techniques with imagination and depth work. Whether navigating anxiety, life transitions, or self-discovery, Alli delights in helping people foster lives that feel not just livable, but vibrant, purposeful, and deep.

Click here to schedule a free 15-minute consultation.

Sunny Ebsary is an educator, multi-modal artist, and writer specializing in the intersection of myth and mental health. Sunny’s writing walks the line between poetic and logical, giving readers a chance to interface with the mind and imagination. Sunny’s been putting pen to paper since he was a child, writing everything from albums, novels, and plays, to essays, interactive games, and of course, many articles! While studying both psychology and writing, he realized his real passion in life was helping others unlock their creative spark. Whether he’s leading a D&D game, directing a production, or diving deep into the brain, you can be sure Sunny will be ushering you toward finding meaning in your life.