How To Stop Negative Thinking: 6 Ways To Fine-Tune
Your Mind
f you are
prone to negative thinking, you may feel as though this is an innate quality
which will impact on you throughout your life. It is this misconception that
drags many people down in their lives, as they allow negative thoughts to
consume them and overwhelm their mind-set.
In fact,
negative thinking is a habit that can be challenged and changed through
knowledge, strategy and behaviour. As we understand the cause of our negativity
and change the way in which we perceive situations, we can develop a more
positive outlook that delivers huge rewards in our personal and professional
lives!
6 ways in which you can stop negative thinking
So, here
are six simple and actionable ways in which you can stop negative thinking and
develop more positive behavioural habits:
1. Develop a consistent sleeping
cycle
Negative
thinking is a symptom of depression, and as such it is often exacerbated by a
lack of sleep or an irregular sleeping cycle. The link between negativity,
depression and sleep deprivation has been explored at length during numerous
scientific studies, including the 2005 Sleep in America pools which discovered
that subjects diagnosed with depression or anxiety were
more likely to sleep less than six hours each night.
To negate
this and ensure that you are well-rested, you should commit to developing a
healthy and sustainable sleep cycle over a prolonged period of time. This must
enable you to achieve a full eight-hour sleep every evening, so create a routine based on the time that you need to
rise for work in the morning.
2. Write down your Negative Thoughts in a Journal
The issue
with negative thoughts is that they are usually formless and ambiguous in our
minds, making them hard to quantify or resolve through verbal reasoning. They
can also hide the real source of our angst, so it is important that we are able
to process these thoughts and understand their various triggers.
The best
way to achieve this is to write down your negative thoughts in a journal,
translating them into words and affording them actual meanings. Start by
recording your thoughts quickly and directly, as you focus on expressing
yourself rather than attempting to phrase your thoughts logically. Once they
have been committed to paper, you can then begin to review them and identify
specific triggers or common themes.
This process
also helps you to develop the habit of expressing your thoughts in an open
manner, making it easier to manage relationships and resolve inter-personal
issues.
3. Stop thinking in extremes
Life is
far from black and white, and those of a rational mind-set are able to factor
this into their everyday thought processes. The same cannot be said for those
who are prone to negative thinking, however, as these individuals tend to think
in extremes and imagine the worst case scenarios when they are faced with a
problem.
Unfortunately,
this prevents you from embracing the subtle nuances of life and considering the
positives that can be drawn from any situation.
In this
respect, the key to challenging a negative mind-set does not lie in contriving a forced and completely positive
mind-set. Instead, you should consider the various
positive and negative possibilities that exist within any given scenario,
committing these to paper and creating a list that can guide your thought
processes. This will instantly afford your brain viable alternatives to the
extreme negative, without forcing you to suddenly alter your mind-set in a
moment.
4. Deal with facts and stop mind-reading
On a
similar note, negative thinking also makes you incapable of dealing with any
kinds of uncertainty. So when you are placed in a stressful or unfamiliar
situation that has a potentially negative outcome, you have a tendency to
pre-empt certain events and apply meanings to them without any significant
facts. This can be described as mind-reading, and it is only likely to foster
further negativity.
This can
be easily resolved with a change in behaviour, as you look to gather facts and
details relating to the situation and use these to make an informed judgement.
The key is to start with a scenario and state all of the logical explanations
in order of their relevance, using either a pen and paper or verbal reasoning.
If a friend has not replied to a text immediately, for example, this could be
due to a number of reasons such as their battery dying, their presence in a
meeting at work or the fact that their handset is on silent and the message has
not been read.
By listing
these realistic explanations, you can avoid the temptation to pre-empt negative
outcomes and react impulsively. Over time, experience will also teach you that
logical and reasonable explanations are usually more likely than the worst-case
scenarios which play on your mind.
5. Accentuate the positive and embrace it when it does
happen
One of the
main issues with negative thinking is that it clouds your judgement at all
times, even when a scenario ends with a positive outcome. This can either cause
you to minimise the positive outcome and the impact that it has in your mind or
prevent you from seeing any positivity at all.
Let’s say
that you are afforded a pay-rise at work, for example, but one that is lower
than some of your colleagues. Instead of focusing solely on this single
negative element, it is far better to celebrate the offer of a pay-rise in the
first instance and recognise the fact that there are others who have received
less. This introduces perspective to any situation and provides definitive
facts to contrast your negative thoughts.
Perception
is the key here, as you look to view negative occurrences as temporary and
specific rather than permanent and pervasive. Instantly look to balance a
negative thought or observation with a contrasting positive, as this will
enable you to get into the habit of developing a far greater sense of
perspective.
6. Re-frame your circumstances and actively seek out
positives
While
there are scenarios that clearly deliver both positive and negative effects,
there are others that may be instantly perceived as being wholly negative. This
is the worst nightmare for anyone who is prone to negative thinking, as they
are presented with a situation which feeds their pessimistic mind-set and
offers no immediate hope of resolution.
You may be
at an airport when your flight is delayed, for example, which is a negative
scenario that forces you to panic and consider a number of opportunities that
you may be missing out on.
The way to
resolve this is to actively seek out positives, initially by re-framing the
circumstances and reconsidering a perceived problem as a potential opportunity.
So rather then focusing on what you may be missing out on, why not list the
other things that you can achieve while waiting for your flight? Whether you
complete work tasks or enjoy some relaxed retail therapy, the key is to distract yourself from negative thoughts by
searching for positive resolutions and optimising your time.
BY LEWIS HUMPHRIES
http://www.lifehack.org/400899/how-to-stop-negative-thinking-6-ways-to-fine-tune-your-mind?ref=mail&mtype=goal_reminder&mid=20161007_with_thumbnail&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&action=read_more&goal_id=25&token=d0e3e4b03809d240b52d71f8a6770fa9
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