My head and I don’t get along—and we never really have.
I’ve been in and out of therapy since I was 8 years old. The reason changes depending on my life’s timeline, but hours and hours of conversations—with more therapists than you’d expect—have all led me to the same discovery: If there’s one thing preventing me from getting along with my own head, it is my own head.
My mindset is my worst enemy, and it always has been. I’m a glass-half-empty kind of girl, and the little black rain cloud above my head has been drizzling since day one.
I’ve spent most of my life struggling to see the light at the end of my tunnel because I refused to believe it was there at all—or that I deserved to find it. I wandered lost in the dark until someone gave me directions, and then I stubbornly ignored them because I thought the grass would never actually be greener on the other side.
Then I realized my half-empty glass could be half full if I tried looking at it from a different angle.
“The world's not always a fountain. It can be a drain, and when it does feel that way, we have to ask: what can we do to really elevate our day, and ultimately elevate our lives, in every way—mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally? You have to be really intentional about it, because it's not going to come naturally, and it's not going to come easy,” said Nolan Nichols, keynote speaker, storytelling strategist and founder of A Million Dreams (and a wonderful friend of mine).
“A big part of it is just pressing pause and posturing yourself for wellness to find you,” he continued. “Albert Einstein has a quote: ['There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.']”
I asked Nichols for tips to help me live like the latter, and suddenly, my glass is filled to the brim.
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Mindset, Mental Health and Gen Z
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and according to the American Psychological Association (APA), Gen Z is significantly more likely to report poor mental health than previous generations (and they’re also more likely to talk about it).
A study conducted by Gallup in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation found that more than 2 out of 5 (42%) Gen Zers struggle with depression, “nearly half report often (30%) or always (17%) feeling anxious, and about 1 in 4 report they are often (15%) or always (7%) depressed.”
“I would boil Gen Z’s mental health struggles down to three things,” Nichols said. “The tech-driven world we’re living in has some negative factors, for sure. We are still feeling the effects that were expedited from the pandemic that started five years ago, layering on that social isolation piece and some of Gen Z’s struggles with social skills that maybe weren’t fully developed. And then there’s all this uncertainty about the future in terms of career, finances, social security, relationships and dating…The list goes on. It’s no wonder there’s a big mental health struggle right now.
“But listen, you’re going to go through seasons of life where you won’t feel like you’re thriving, and that’s OK,” Nichols said. “Look at seasons like trees. In the winter, trees aren’t bummed that they’re not producing fruit. They lose their leaves just to survive because they know growth is inevitable when they make it to spring.
“We’ll go through multiple seasons in our lives where the purpose in that moment is not to thrive, it’s to survive,” he continued. “But we can’t lose hope because spring is always just around the corner.”
You can’t have flowers without a little rain, right?
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Mastering Mental Resets
Of course, I love flowers—but I really love the rain. My little black rain cloud comes with me everywhere I go, but sometimes, when it starts to storm and the drizzle turns into a downpour, my flowers start to yellow and wilt. That’s when I know it’s time to make an effort to let the sunshine back in.
It may not be possible to cure existing mental health conditions by shifting your mindset alone, but making small changes to your daily routine, implementing new habits into your life and being intentional about how you open yourself up to letting good things in can lead to a more optimistic outlook, decreased stress levels and positive impacts on your mental health overall.
After years of trial and error, I’ve found a couple of tricks and techniques that’ve helped me shift my mindset to let the sunshine back in and see my glass from a different perspective. I learned even more from Nichols, who’s made it his career to help people live as though everything is a miracle.
Here are three of my favorite ways to mentally reset, as well as some tips and tricks from Nichols, that have helped me shift my mindset in a positive direction and make it to the next spring season in my life.
1. Get Outside
“The top thing I recommend, Taylor, is going on a walk,” Nichols said. “There’s an endless number of studies that say physical exercise has a tremendous mental effect. Just being in motion helps so much.”
I’ve heard it from everyone. It’s one of the most common coping skills people suggest I try when I am feeling anxious or overwhelmed, but for a long time, I ignored their advice. I didn’t understand how a 10-minute walk around the block could possibly make me feel better—and then I gave it a shot.
Moving my body did seem to make me feel better, but what made these quick walks so healing was everything else that came with them: the warmth of sunshine on my face, the nostalgic smell of fresh-cut grass, the rush of wind in my hair—and a very happy puppy by my side.
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2. Find a Furry Friend
Speaking of puppies…have I introduced you to Romeo, my favorite little furball in the whole wide world?! I know I talk about him all the time, but that’s because there is genuinely nothing that makes me happier than my dog.
According to the University of California, dogs specifically have been proven to reduce stress, anxiety and depression, ease loneliness, encourage exercise and improve overall health, and if there is one thing I can always count on to make me feel better and help me mentally reset, it’s finding a furry friend to spend a little time with.
Romeo is obviously my go-to good boy, but the reality of my job means I spend a lot of time on the road and can’t always bring him with me. All I usually have to do, though, is get outside, explore a little bit and eventually, I am bound to find a furry friend out on a walk with their owner or stopping for a pup cup at a coffee shop.
Five minutes of petting a puppy, and sometimes a little conversation with a stranger, never fails to help me reset and ground myself, especially in stressful situations. (That’s why I always PAWS for a break during MPI’s Smart Monday before IMEX America!) USA Gymnastics even used Beacon, a 4-year-old Golden Retriever and registered therapy dog, to calm the nerves and stress of athletes during the U.S. Olympic Team Trials competition last June for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
3. Let It All Out
When my emotions are getting the best of me, negative thoughts are swirling around in my head and I feel like I could explode, I know the most helpful thing I can do in that moment to clear my mind is to let all of those feelings out.
Some people prefer sharing their feelings with others, venting to a best friend or talking things through with someone who they trust as a sounding board. Others find solace in silence and solitude, where they have the space to process their feelings on their own, but me? I prefer a pen and paper.
Writing about all of my thoughts and emotions makes me feel like I am literally taking them from my head and moving them somewhere else. It clears my mind in a way that allows me to be completely open and honest with myself, and once I get everything out, sometimes I find it even more therapeutic to tear the paper out of my journal, crumple it up, step on it, rip it, throw it away, light it on fire…
When I release all of that negative energy, it immediately creates more space for positivity to take its place.
[Related: The Z: 3 Trends Gen Z Is Setting in 2025]
Tay’s Top 5 Tunes
If you click on this link, you’ll find my friend Nolan Nichols’ “Best Practices” article that he wrote for the May issue of Meetings Today, sharing five mental resets meeting planners can practice during stressful onsite situations. One of his positive-thinking power-ups is “Set Your Soundtrack.”
Music can be a tool to uplift and energize you, and for me, it’s the most powerful one in my toolbox (besides my words, of course). Nichols recommends creating a go-to playlist of three to five songs that never fail to put you in a happier mood and help you reset. Check out my pink iPod on the right for my top five tunes (…right now)!
My little black rain cloud may follow me wherever I go, but thanks to these techniques, I never forget to look for a rainbow after the storm.
Have a question about Gen Z or a topic you’d like to learn more about? Share your thoughts with Taylor at taylor.smith@meetingstoday.com, on Instagram at @tay__writes or on X at @taywrites.
Mission Statement: "The Z: Planning for the Industry’s Next Generation" is a Meetings Today column discussing the meetings and events industry’s newest and youngest members—the incoming Generation Z. Written by Meetings Today’s Taylor Smith, a member of Gen Z herself, The Z explores how to welcome, work with, understand and plan for the industry’s next wave of professionals while serving as a guide for members of Gen Z themselves, planners and attendees alike.
Read more from "The Z: Planning for the Industry’s Next Generation."
