12 Effective Ways to Fight Negative Ideas (and Embrace Positive Thinking) (and Embrace Positive Thinking)
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
Anais Nin
“Having a good mental attitude is asking how something can be done rather than declaring it can’t be done.”
Bo Bennett
“It’s better to be an optimist who is occasionally wrong than a pessimist who is always right.”
Unknown
It begins with only a concept or a sensation. Or maybe with a statement said by someone else.
And then it begins to draw you down.
Into feeling sorry for yourself, anxious or into wondering “what’s the purpose of taking any action at all?” as you go about in a funk with your own little rain cloud over your head.
Negativity that wells up inside of you or in the environment around you may rapidly become poisonous and hold you back from living the life you desire.
Therefore in this week’s article I want to offer 12 strategies and practices that have helped me – and still assist me – to avoid and to conquer my own negative thoughts but also the negativity that’s occasionally around me.
1. When you’re in what appears like a terrible position, locate what’s positive.
If you’ve experienced a setback, tripped or failed then things could appear dismal and thus negative ideas may start to creep up and threaten to fill your perception of this circumstance.
To counterbalance that ask yourself better questions.
Questions that can assist you to feel better but also to learn so you may improve.
Questions like:
What’s one nice thing about this situation?
What’s one thing I can do differently the next time to likely have a better outcome?
What’s one thing I can learn from this?
How would my closest buddy support and aid me in this situation?
2. Reminder: people don’t care that much about what you say or do.
It’s easy to get into negative thinking when you worry about what others may say or think if you do or do not do something.
And thus you zap your own strength and may catch yourself in analytical paralysis.
Being locked in your brain and in ideas like that will draw you farther away from what you desire and from reality.
But the fact is that people don’t have that much time, attention or energy to contemplate or speak about what you do.
They have their hands and brains busy with their kids, work, pets, interests and their own anxieties and worries (such for example what others may think of them) (like for example what people may think of them).
This awareness and reminder might enable you to set yourself free from the limits you may build in your own head and allow you to start taking tiny – or greater steps – towards what you deep down desire in your life.
3. Question the thought.
One thing I like to do when a negative idea taps me on the shoulder and attempts to start blooming in my head is to simply to challenge that notion.
I ask myself:
Should I take you seriously?
This most typically causes me to say: uh, no, I honestly shouldn't.
Because at that point in time I’m fatigued. Maybe hungry. Or overworked and so pessimism may attempt to cloud my head.
If I am getting overly concentrated on one minor error or one unpleasant day. Instead than concentrating on the other 95% of my life that tends to be good.
Sometimes this question helps me to recognize that just because I did one minor item badly doesn't signify that I performed poorly overall.
Or that this one unpleasant incident doesn’t signal that things will become worse and continue like way for a long time. Not if I choose positivity and to take modest moves ahead.
Fundamentally, this question offers me a reality check and roots me to a level-headed viewpoint again.
4. Replace the negative in your environment.
What you allow into your head in your ordinary life will have tremendous influence on you. So start questioning what you let in.
Ask yourself:
What are the top 3 causes of negativity in my life?
It might be people, websites, journals, podcasts, music and so on.
Then ask yourself:
What can I do to spend less time with these 3 sources this week?
If you can’t discover methods to achieve that right now for all three of them then take a smaller step and work on achieving it with just one of these sources.
Then use the time you’ve freed up this week on additional good sources and people that are currently in your life or that you wish to investigate and potentially create a new part of it.
5. Quit building mountains out of molehills.
To avoid a minor bad idea from becoming a giant monster in your head face it early. You may achieve it by for example utilizing tip #3 in this post.
Maybe you can zoom out. Do it by asking yourself a question like:
Will this matter in 5 years? Maybe perhaps 5 weeks?
This response is probable in most circumstances that it won’t and that you were merely beginning to construct a mountain out of a molehill (or out of plain air) (or out of plain air).
6. Let it out and speak it over.
Keeping negative ideas that are beginning to obscure your entire mind locked up won’t help.
So let them out. Discuss the topic or your views over with someone close to you.
Simply ranting for a few minutes will frequently assist you to view the problem in fresh light.
Or if not then a chat about it where the two of you discover a more helpful viewpoint and possibly the beginnings of an action-plan can be both relieving and refreshing.
7. Live in and come back to this moment.
When you’re tapping into negative thoughts then you’re frequently thinking about something that occurred. Or anything that may happen. Maybe both, all muddled up as your mood and thoughts plummet.
To snap out of it concentrate your attention entirely into this now instead. Into what’s here right now.
Start making it a habit to spend more of your time in the present moment and you’ll, in my experience, automatically have fewer negative thoughts and be more open and constructive.
A handful of techniques to bring oneself back to being attentive and this present are:
Concentrate entirely on your breathing.
Take a 1-2 minute stop right now and take a bit deeper breaths than you typically do. Make sure you’re inhaling with your stomach and through your nose.
During this period concentrate just on the air coming in and out and nothing else.
Take in the world around you.
Take a 1-2 minute break, get out of your thoughts and concentrate your attention on what’s around you right now. Nothing else.
Just concentrate on the people strolling by outside your window, the muffled sounds and noises from the street, the fragrances surrounding you and the light pouring in and warming your skin.
8. Go for a quick exercise.
I find that when I’m having difficulties with thinking myself out of negativity then it frequently works well to shift my mindset by utilizing my body.
So I go for a 20-30 minute exercise and lift some free weights.
This enables me to remove inner stress and concerns. And it makes my thoughts concentrated and productive once more.
9. Don’t allow the hazy anxieties pull you down.
One typical error individuals make when it comes to anxieties – one that I’ve made many times – is to get terrified and run away from them instead of taking a closer look.
It’s of course normal to feel that inclination and to want to avoid it but when worries are imprecise they may become so much worse than they need too.
So what can you do? One thing that has helped me is this question:
Seriously, what’s the worst that might happen in this situation?
When you start to ground a fear like that and begin to look at it with your feet firmly placed on the ground then you most frequently find that the worst that may happen isn’t actually that horrible.
It’s typically something you can build a strategy to come back if it were to happen.
And you can also probably start identifying and taking action on a few things that will lessen the risk of this worst case scenario occurring.
By doing this you obtain clarity about the problem and what you can do about it and so the dread does tend to become quite a little less.
10. Bring optimism into someone else’s life.
If you get lost in negative thoughts or victim thinking then one of the quickest ways to get out of your own brain and the things buzzing around in there is to concentrate outside and on someone else.
By providing positivity to his or her life in some manner you too might start to feel better and more cheerful again.
A few methods to contribute optimism to someone’s life is to:
Be nice. Offer him a sincere praise, hold up the door or allow him into your lane when driving your automobile.
Help out. Offer her some useful tips that have benefited you or help out with shifting residences or arranging and preparing for the celebration next weekend.
Just be there. Listen for a few minutes in a concentrated manner while he rants. Or discuss his unpleasant position over to assist him to start finding his way out of it.
11. Be appreciative for a couple of the things you may frequently take for granted.
When we become pessimistic it’s easy to overlook the pleasant things in life. Particularly the ones that are simply a typical part of life that we may take for granted a little too frequently.
A few such things that I prefer to spend my attention on and feel thankful for during such unpleasant moments are:
Three solid meals a day.
A roof over my head during the frigid nights and the wet and windy days.
As much pure water as I desire.
Nice and helpful relatives and friends.
12. Start tomorrow in a manner that sets a good tone for your day.
How you start your day typically sets the tone for it.
A gloomy or negative start makes it hard to turn things around. Yet a great start makes it a lot simpler to simply keep going with the mood and the optimistic way of thinking until it is night again.
A number of easy strategies to get your day off to a great start is:
A simple reminder that you notice shortly after you wake up.
It might be one or a few of quotations that encourage you. Or maybe the aim or aspiration that you’re most enthusiastic about right now.
Write it down on a piece of paper and set it on your bedside table or on the fridge. Simply enter it in as a component of the lock screen on your smart phone.
Get some pleasant knowledge or discussion pouring into your thoughts.
Listen to a podcast, read a fresh blog post or a chapter in a book that stimulates you or makes you giggle.
Or have a fun or inspiring talk with your spouse, kids or a co-worker.
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