If you are prone to negative thinking, then you may feel that this is an innate quality that guides you throughout your life. It is this misbehavior that pulls a lot of people down, as they allow negative thoughts to ruin their mood.
In fact, negative thinking is a habit that can be challenged and changed through knowledge, strategies, and behavior. Once we understand the cause of our negativity and change the way we perceive the situation, we can develop a more positive outlook that will provide tremendous benefits in our personal and professional lives.
6 Ways You Can Change Negative Thinking
So, here are six simple and effective ways to help you stop negative thinking and develop more positive behavioral habits.
Develop the Right Sleep Cycle for You
Promotional video:
Negative thinking is a symptom of depression and is often exacerbated by lack of sleep or irregular sleep cycles. The link between negativity, depression, and sleep disturbance has been studied in many studies. For example, in 2005, American researchers found that patients with depression or anxiety tended to sleep less than six hours each night.
To offset your negativity, make sure you get plenty of rest. You should definitely develop a healthy and sustainable sleep cycle for yourself. This will help you achieve eight hours of sleep each day, thus creating a routine to help you get up to work each morning.
Write down your negative thoughts
The problem with negative thoughts is that they tend to be unformed and ambiguous in our minds. This means that they are difficult to identify or eliminate using verbal thinking. They may also contain the true source of our fear, so it is very important to process them and understand their meaning.
The best way to do this is to write down negative thoughts in a journal, translating them into words and giving them physical meaning. Start writing them down quickly and naturally, focusing on expressing yourself rather than formulating the sentence correctly. After you write them down on paper, start identifying their specific meaning or general themes.
This process can also help you develop the habit of expressing your thoughts in an open manner, which will make it easier to manage relationships and solve interpersonal problems.
Stop going to extremes
Life is far from black and white, and many rational people take this into account in their daily thinking process. But the same cannot be said for those people who are prone to negativity. They tend to go to extremes and imagine the worst situation when faced with a problem.
Unfortunately, this makes it difficult to grasp the subtlest nuances of life and take into account the positive aspects that can be seen in any situation.
With this in mind, you shouldn't change your highly negative thinking style to an entirely positive one. Instead, consider the various positive and negative possibilities that exist in any life situation and create a list that guides your thought processes. This will allow your brain to instantly seek alternatives in the event of extreme negativity, without forcing you to suddenly change your way of thinking.
Act on facts, not assumptions
Negative thinking makes you unable to deal with any kind of uncertainty. Therefore, when you find yourself in a stressful or unfamiliar situation that has a potentially negative result, you begin to anticipate events and try to solve the problem without taking into account any significant facts. This can be described as mind reading, which is likely to contribute to further negativity.
This problem can be easily solved by changing the behavior. First, you need to gather facts and details related to the situation and use them to make an informed decision. You must start with a script and list all logical explanations in order of importance. Use pen and paper or verbal reflections. For example, if your friend did not respond instantly to a message, there could be many reasons for this. He could have run out of battery, perhaps he had a meeting at work, or the phone was in silent mode and the message was simply not read.
By listing these realistic explanations, you can avoid the temptation to identify negative outcomes and respond impulsively. Over time, experience will also teach you that logical and rational explanations are always more likely than the worst-case scenarios that pop into your head.
Pay attention to the positive and embrace it
One of the main problems with negative thinking is that it is with you all the time, even when the situation is positive. This can minimize the positive outcome and the impact it has on you, or it can prevent you from seeing the positive in your life.
Let's assume that you received a salary increase, but it is slightly lower than that of some of your colleagues. Instead of focusing solely on this single negative point, it is much better to think about what exactly you got. It is also important to acknowledge the fact that some employees received an increase even less than you, or have nothing. This way of thinking provides perspective in any situation and allows facts to counter negative thoughts.
The key here is perception, that you see negative phenomena as temporary and concrete, not permanent and pervasive. Learn to balance your negative thoughts with contrasting positive ones. This will allow you to get in the habit of seeing the perspective much more often.
Re-think all the circumstances and look for the positive
There are situations in which both positive and negative effects can be clearly identified. But there are others that can instantly be perceived as negative. This is the worst nightmare for those who are prone to negative thinking, as they are faced with a situation that fuels their pessimistic mindsets and does not offer an immediate way out.
Let's say you are at the airport and your flight is delayed. This is a negative scenario that makes you panic and consider opportunities that you might miss out on.
You can solve this situation if you start actively looking for the positive. It is important to re-examine the current situation and redefine the perceived problem as a potential opportunity. So, instead of focusing on what you might be missing out on, why not list other things you might be able to achieve while waiting for your flight? You can, for example, finish important work or enjoy a sudden break. This will distract you from negative thoughts as you look for the positive and optimize your time.
Conclusion
Negative thinking is bad for all aspects of our lives. With these little secrets, you can finally get off the ground and start seeing the world around you in a color other than gray and black.
