Our mental attitude determines how we view the world. If it is negative, it can adversely impact our career, health, family, etc. It can contribute to mental issues like stress, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.
The best way to overcome negative thinking is to know what you’re thinking now and the problems that result from it. Then, you can use various techniques to change your thinking.
If you are constantly struggling with negative thoughts, here are some simple techniques to overcome them.
It is easy to complain as it always starts with something small, but then it snowballs into something bigger. Break up with negative thinking before that happens.
#1. Reflect and Review Your Negative Thoughts Daily
Experts recommend a Negative Thought Time (NTT), which can be about ten minutes a day. You use this time to reflect on your negative thoughts, why you had them, and what you did about them. Doing this helps you gain control over negative thinking, and with time, you’ll overcome it. Anytime a negative thought crosses your mind, write it down for review during NTT.
#2. Practice Mindfulness and Be Self-Aware
Mindfulness is a type of meditation where one separates themselves from their thoughts and emotions and views them from an observer’s point of view. It can help you be aware of your thoughts and yourself. Statistics on individuals who practice mindfulness revealed that 35% use it to calm stress.
Mindfulness can help you gain control of how you emotionally react to situations by thinking first before reacting. A study published in the Journal of Research in Personality found that engaging in mindfulness can reduce one’s negative thinking when one has been exposed to negative imagery.
Related article: 10 Ways to Calm Your Anxious Mind
#3. Pinpoint Negative Thoughts
Now, mindfulness helps you observe your thoughts. However, you need to know and label the negative ones. An example of a negative thought includes always viewing yourself as a failure.
Also, being overly conclusive can lead to negative thinking and assumptions about how things will turn out or how others view you. Other things that contribute to negative thinking include:
- Using your emotional response to conclude things. For example, when you’re nervous, you can conclude that you are not safe.
- Taking things personally even when they are not and blaming yourself always.
- Using what happened during a previous experience to make conclusions about a future experience.
#4. Replace Negative Thoughts
Once you have identified your negative thoughts, the best way to overcome them is by replacing them with positive ones.
Well, replacing negative thoughts is a bit challenging at first. However, with practice, you’ll eventually get there. You can use these four steps to help you out:
- Determine when the pattern started
- Acknowledge that it’s a bad pattern and be willing to change
- Verbalize the thing you want to be different
- Decide on different behavior and response
Whenever a thought crosses your mind, ask yourself whether it’s realistic. If it’s not, challenge it and weigh out the gains and losses you’d have had if you let the thought in.
#5. Use Affirmations
Affirmations can help you overcome negative thinking. When you wake up in the morning, remind yourself that you are more than worth it. Affirmation builds positive thinking. But since a negative thought can still creep in, remind yourself of your success and how you felt about it.
Affirmation examples include, “I learn from the lessons instead of resisting them,” “I am gentle with myself and those around me,” “I welcome positivity into my life,”
Related article: 75 Morning Affirmations to Make it Happen Today!
#6. Don’t Stop the Thoughts
While you should identify negative thoughts, don’t try stopping them. This will only make them surface more, leading to thought rebounding.
According to experts, thought rebounding is more damaging than even the negative thoughts themselves. Instead, you should find a way to deal with these thoughts directly.
Final Thoughts
Negative thoughts can have a huge impact on our lives. If you’re constantly struggling with it, consider talking to a mental health expert. Yes, sharing your thoughts with another person is difficult, but these professionals can help you overcome negative thinking.