Most of us have been pessimistic at one time or another. There have been instances when you might have felt that it was the end of the world and that you can never ever be happy and positive in life. There are many who are able to manage to get over these feelings and get back to being positive and optimistic. For the others, these negative thoughts can be overwhelming and most often; these people get into a depression.
You need to be aware that pessimists tend to die early in life as compared to those ‘happy’ lot.
Thoughts are powerful as these can lead to your mood, behavior and physiological symptoms. According to psychologists, most of the time, you are in charge of your thoughts. You have a choice of not only what you are thinking, but also how you are thinking.
You can learn how to manage the negative thoughts and wipe these out before they take charge. These negative thoughts can be replaced with adaptive, accurate, uplifting and realistic thoughts. These ‘positive’ thoughts can help you in being the best version of yourself.
Experts believe that we opt for the negative thoughts as we are surrounded by these. You find the media concentrating on news that is negative so that they can make good money. The negative people around you have the ability to project negativity on to those around them. The best way out is to make sure you focus on the positive and try to ignore the negatives.
Try reframing your negative thoughts into the positives. At work, in case you have completed 4 projects of the 10 given, try thinking of what you have achieved instead of what is left to be done.
All you need is a click on your thoughts so that they are directed at positivity.
Chronic pessimism and negative thoughts can also stem from other triggers like issues in your childhood that have not been resolved or patterns that are self-destructive. These can impede your personal growth.
It is important to identify the harmful circumstances that have had an impact on you. Thoughts form due to your experiences and childhood. These are role modeled by society, your loved ones, the media and community. These thoughts are derived from your life experiences that you judge and label as ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. This includes your challenges, struggles, victories, losses and gains.
One way in which you can move forward is to set goals or learn new skills. Negative thoughts can be dominating due to your personality and how you function. Whatever might be the reason, you need to understand that negative thoughts can be controlled.
NMC (Negative Manifestation Compulsion) can be controlled. This occurs in a series of negative thoughts. These tend to compound and leave you far behind your goal.
You spend a lot of time in your head, reliving the negative experiences of your past and forecasting worst case outcomes and scenarios. All this reliving of negative experiences only stops you from living your life.
You need to understand that the future is only your imagination and the past is only the ‘past’. You can choose what to think and how to react in your present situation. It is your individual choice.
The foundation of negative manifestation lies in the lack of drive to reach your goal, planning and also drive. The small negative manifestations are a warning for the larger ones coming. You can observe a negative thought sans any judging. You can, then, replace this. You need to concentrate on thoughts, visualization of success you had, gratitude and joyful moments.
Positive affirmations do not work as well as portrayed by all these gurus’. For optimism to sustain you need a good foundation. The best practice for this is identifying the root cause of the trigger, and addressing this. You need to make an effort to ensure you can change the relationship with the inner thoughts.
Some easy ways to control your negative thoughts is to ensure you are surrounded by people who can support and also inspire you. These people can help lift you from the tough challenges life throws at you. You need to minimize stress by setting up reasonable boundaries around any exposure to negative people. You need to learn to let go any perception that is negative, thoughts that indicate you are not good enough and limiting your beliefs.
There is no use fighting negative thoughts as these tend to get bigger. As mentioned before, learn to ignore these and replace these with positivity.
You can also try deep breathing whenever you find disturbing thoughts occupying your mind. Set a time limit so that you can switch over to positivity. You need to understand that all human beings go through negative thoughts but a lot of them are able to continue living life in a joyful manner in spite of this.
