Negative thinking can destroy your life. It’s not a joke; this is one of the major obstacles to happiness. Even when you’re on your way to achieving something great, the negative thoughts can stress you out.
- I said the wrong thing again. How could I be so stupid?
- I hate this job. But I couldn’t possibly leave. It’ll be hard to find a new job. The new one will probably be just as bad, if not worse.
- I don’t deserve to be happy. That’s why bad things happen to me all the time.
- I’ve a bad life.
- I’m unlucky, good things can never happen to me.
The above statements are a few examples of negative thinking patterns. Do you notice how infectious they’re in life? Your mind just needs a trigger, and it will easily go down the whirling of negative thinking.
Although, the negativity — like a teacher — also comes to teach us something but fortunately, there are ways to fight and stop negative thoughts. Let’s explore them:
- Change your mindset: Positive emotions as nutrients. We need to eat our fruits and veggies to stay healthy, right? Well, we also need a healthy dose of positive vibes daily, so we’ll keep preserving our psychological health, too. we can all get there if we just recognize the negative thinking patterns and start fighting them. The following methods on our list will help with that.
- Practice loving-kindness meditation: In this type of meditation, the practitioner is focused on wishing well-being for themselves, for the people they love, and all other people; the planet itself. They start from within and expand to indefinite limits of kindness to all. The findings showed signs of psychological and physiological changes in people who did this meditation. So, try to practice the meditation of love and kindness. You’ve got those emotions in you. When you allow them to prevail, they will help you overcome negative thinking patterns.
- Express positive emotions: Just relax. Smile and greet people. Be there for them. Tell some jokes. This won’t be acting. You’ll still be conscious of your internal state of being. However, the labors you’re making will reflect on that internal state too.
- Spend more time with positive people: Negative people will suck the good vibes away. They’re like parasites that leave you with no signs of a positive attitude when you spend time with them. You can’t avoid all negative people, but you can try to spend more time with positive friends and family members. These are the people who do their best to be good. They make you feel happy, energized, and motivated. Search for these people. Spend time with them.
- Plan a good day: When you arrange your day in a good way, you’ll be more focused to achieve your goals. At the end of the day, you’ll feel better about yourself.
- Be grateful: Acknowledge the success you already achieved. When the negative thoughts attack, it’s time to fight them back. Sometimes you hit a low point in life. That’s okay. Just stop and give yourself some credit for what you’ve achieved so far. You’ll probably start thinking of the long way that’s still ahead, and the negative thoughts will come up again. Just remember: it’s the journey you have to appreciate.
- Develop a gratitude attitude: Appreciating others feel good and it’s a booster for a healthy mind. Find your little ways to appreciate people — I keep little THANK YOU cards.
- Read: The habit of reading can take you to another level because the information and wisdom are already out there. You might find new perspectives and different ways to combat this monster. Reading a good book opens up a whole world of knowledge.
- Write: Did you know that a daily practice of writing can make you happier? It’s similar to meditation in that aspect. When you write about your day, you allow yourself to re-address the events, thoughts, and emotions you’ve been through. Write about trauma, so you can understand and overcome it. However, you shouldn’t focus on the negative thoughts. Include things you’re grateful about.
- Never postpone joy: Life is much better when you’re. So, next time you want to do something, just go for it.
We can’t force positive emotions and suppress negative thoughts. The negative thoughts will still appear from time to time. With enough effort, however, we can overcome them.
We can make our positive side stronger.
