7 Ways to Deal with Negative Thoughts
To deal with negative thoughts we have to become mentally strong. Let’s accept the fact that it is not possible to avoid negative thoughts completely. Negative thoughts are the result of our insecurities in life. We cannot avoid negative thoughts but we can learn to deal with them effectively.
Reasons for negative thoughts vary from person to person. For some people it is because of their past failures, for some, it is because they have never tried it before, some cannot afford failures because they have responsibilities to meet after. One thing is clear that the root of negative thoughts is under-confidence in life.
Negative thoughts harm your body like a disease. It can make you sick and depressed. But with continuous effort and will power you can fight with it and regain the happiness in your life.
Here is the list of such effective ways that can help you to deal with negative thoughts.
Identify the cause
To treat a disease you must be aware of its cause first. The same thing applies here also, to deal with negative thoughts you need to identify the root cause of it.
Whenever you feel like failing at anything, eliminate that feeling there only. Practice hard until the chances of your failure reduce to less than 50% at least. When you are confident enough, your mind avoids negative thinking itself.
Sometimes we get negative thoughts because of our bad experiences in the past. Start fresh with every opportunity, don’t hold your past with you, live in the present and focus on the future. You are not the same person from the past anymore, you have evolved with time, you are a far better person this time that will not repeat the same mistake again. Get rid of your past bad experiences and start fresh and new.
Stay away from negative people
Negative people are those people who are able to find a problem for every solution. Stay away from these kinds of people, or at least avoid them as much as you can. These people can implant the seeds of negative thoughts in your brain without your knowledge. These people like to play with your subconscious mind.
These kinds of people will tell you that you can’t do anything because they can’t do it. They can shake your self-confidence and point out your insecurities. Avoid this mentality, every individual is different if someone failed at it does not mean you will fail too.
These are the people who never get success in their life and made sure that others won’t get too. Don’t listen to such type of negative people if they list out 5 reasons why you can’t do it, list out 10 reasons why you can do it. Always counter-attack this mentality and prevent your brain to fall for negative thoughts.
Stop comparing yourself
It is a fact that we all compare ourselves with the people we think are better than us and get depressed thinking about there success. We feel like we are far behind and we can never reach the position where they are now. The success is not for us.
We have to understand that we all have different timelines for ourselves. Stop comparing yourself with other people. Barack Obama becomes president at the age of 47 and retires at 55 while Donald Trump starts at the age of 70. You will get what you deserve when your time comes.
Instead of focusing on others success, focus on your work and your goals. Never copy others, learn from others and keep working on yourself, your time will come.
Don’t get jealous of your competition, learn from them. Indulge in a healthy competition that will help you to grow and become a better version of yourself.
Never afraid of trying
We are all afraid of trying new things because we have this fear of losing, Most of the people simply accept their fate that success is not for them, they can’t make it there. It is for people who are already there and we are nowhere in the race.
People fail to understand that people who are successful now are not there always. They haven’t started from there. They are people just like you just more ambitious than you. They never give up on their dreams, they struggled hard to make it there.
The reason for negative thoughts is you keep thinking about something but never take action about it because these negative thoughts never let you. Never afraid of trying because when you start something, you don’t have expectations to fulfill and you have nothing to lose. Trying should be the only option for you.
Think about things you are proud of
Whenever you feel like negative thoughts are surrounding you, think about all the good times in your life. A time when you feel proud of yourself because it is really difficult to get depressed when you are admiring yourself.
Think about a time when you were really happy, what have you done at that time. You cannot be happy and depressed and at the same time. This activity will help you to divert your mind from negative thoughts and restore the confidence in you.
Call your friends
When we are dealing with negative thoughts, the most common reaction is to isolate ourselves from the outer world. But, if you really want to deal with negative thoughts then do the opposite.
Call or if possible meet your best friends. Instead of talking about your bad situation ask them about theirs. Spent time with them and have fun. Visit your favorite hangout place together or watch a movie or just spent time with them remembering the old times.
This will make your mind fresh and your negative thoughts will vanish away. Now start fresh and analyze all your problems from a different angle and find a solution for them this time.
Give yourself a break
Most of the time the origin of negative thoughts is overthinking about a scenario or situation. Sometimes the situation is not as bad as we thought but we make it worse by overthinking it.
If you want to deal with negative thoughts give yourself a break from all of this chaos. Go for a vacation or just stop thinking about that scenario for a day or two. Instead, focus on other things in life.
When you give yourself time you realize that in actual the problem was not that big initially. It was you who made it big by overthinking and developing negative thoughts in your mind.
Whenever you fall for negative thoughts next time, understand that this is not going to help you in any way. Any problem can be solved when your mind is calm.
Source: 7 Ways to Deal with Negative Thoughts – Pick the Brain