Are you going through negative thoughts like ‘ what if some vehicle hit me while driving’ ‘what if I lost an arm’, ‘what if my friend dies’, ‘what if my house collapse’, ‘what if something happens to my close ones’, ‘what if world war starts’, ‘what if everyone hates me’, ‘what if I do poor in my studies, which I’m good at now’, ‘what if go blad’ etc, etc.
Have these thoughts made you worry? making you upset? making you stressed out? making you think that there is something problem with you?
Don’t worry, you are absolutely healthy and this problem can be solved.
Understanding negative thoughts
Negative thoughts are nothing but thoughts that doesn’t favor you, the thought that is opposite to what you want.
Let’s first understand the base of your negative thoughts. Just try to remember when did you start having thoughts like this. Thoughts like this tend to appear
- when you are overly exposed to constant negative news,
- negative happens around you,
- the content that you consume is related to negative kinds of stuff,
- when you extremely miss someone
- when you try to protect someone or something
From then, you may be started having thoughts like this. Have you ever noticed? When you are free/ not occupied in any other stuff these negative thoughts tend to appear and also when you are doing what you fear. It can be said in other words that, when you have the time to think, you are thinking negatively, and also you tend to think negatively when something influences you.
The negative thoughts comprise higher-order thinking! Prediction, association, evaluating, memory, imagination, attention. It simply conveys that you are an “Intellectual person”. People with higher intellectual compacity can only keep on predicting future happenings. Will imagine what if that happens?
These type of thoughts arises when you know what you want. When you know what you want, then you tend to protect what you want. In the name of protecting what you want; you tend to predict and associate the other elements which are threats to that. These type of negative thoughts starts like this and they tend to evolve, it causes you to forget why you think in that way! As you are intellectually superior, it will be easy for you think in that way. A person with poor intellectual capacity cannot do that.
It slowly leads to stress out of negative thoughts. Unable to concentre on the job, studies because you will be trying to defend those thoughts with other positive thoughts. Which will be like a war going inside your head. The most difficult part is that people around you cannot understand what you are going through. Because of this, they will get angry with you and you will be facing many more professional, and personal issues.
Some people try to reverse those negative thoughts by doing something physically like, when the person walks reverse after a negative thought then his/her negative thought will not become a reality. Because of this people around that person may think that he is crazy/mad.
Don’t worry you are not alone. Many people in this world are going through this. The most commonly used tactic is to, give the guard to someone so that you can rest in peace. This is where religion comes in, people who have faith in gods will let all their fears to the god and leave the rest to him, whatever happens, it is God happening. When it comes to any god, god is full of positive vibes, so automatically you tend to think in a positive way.
Ways to prevent negative thoughts
1) Focus on what you want
As we have already seen, there are no negative/ positive thoughts, it is just a thought. Celebrate your happy moments. Negative thoughts are simply focusing on what you don’t want. It looks simple but it is our choice to choose between, it has a significant impact
Eg: If you fear dying, then imagine yourself sitting on a beach with your grandchildren, with a smile on your face, with shrunk skin, with your lovely wife resting on your shoulders and you having a sandwich in your other hand.
2) Live at the moment
Mindfulness is the greatest key! The problem that you are going through is future-oriented (what it that happen) but those thoughts make you worry in the present. As we can see that when you are occupied with some other work, these thoughts will not disturb you. I’m not saying that keep yourself busy instead, do whatever but always do it with your 100%
Eg: While bathing: enjoy every bit of cleaning yourself and enjoy the water flowing through your body. While eating food, taste every bit of watermelon that you intake.
3) Be happy about everything
Fear only occurs at present. Not only fear, everything happens only at present. People tend to fear negative thoughts. then the fear emotion gets dominated. The negative thought that you think will be future-oriented but your emotion is at present. You will not feel fear without your emotion. As there is a linkage between feelings and thought, you tend to feel fear when you think of negative thoughts.
What is messing with you is not your thoughts but your fear. Regardless of whatever thought arises Feel happy about it, then it becomes a joke and you will not concentrate on it. People tend to concentrate more on what they fear, that is why all the advertisements that you see are related to inducing fear within
Eg: If you think of getting yourself stabbed by someone, be happy about it. That thought will not appear again, as you know we give much attention to negativity.
4) Expand your interest
If you are only limited to something, it will be easy for your mind to think negatively about it. Expanding your interest makes your mind think negatively about all the things that you feel important. Expand your interest to many other things that you need not care about, it hears complex but it is simple. When you think negatively about something that you don’t care then you will not feel fear or worry
Eg: Make yourself believe that your teacup is the most significant thing on earth to you. You may feel like this doesn’t make sense. Remember feeling anxious about something that will never happen also doesn’t make sense in any way. “Diamond cuts Diamond”
5) Stop intaking negativity
Stop watching News channels and reading newspapers. There gonna be constant negative news. For some time avoid people who always talk negatively. The important information that you need to know will come to you in any way so don’t worry about that. Instead, use news apps or Instagram- On Instagram, if you follow meme pages, creators are conveying the world news through memes.
You may have heard the phrase, “History always repeats itself”. The same type of news will be published over and over with a new person, new place, and new experience. Hearing these news doesn’t make you knowledgeable instead it slowly starts to control your thought process
Eg: When you watch the news about a ghost attack, then you may associate yourself that may or may not happen to you. Instead, listen to stories, podcasts, music, etc
6) Build a hobby
A hobby is one of the significant thing. It may not sound valuable to you but it is one of the mental health boosters. Nearly present 95% of people do not have any hobby after when we started using mobiles, our hobbies are shifted from healthy to unhealthy= reading books to watching movies, series, and checking Instagram. These gadgets don’t allow us to think, it makes us addicted to it.
Developing a hobby will help us to connect with ourselves again. It would make you feel free. Your time will not be controlled by someone else, so that you can focus on what you want.
Eg: Reading books, learning to play different music, playing indoor or outdoor games, etc.
7) Develop friendship
Being lonely will affect a person in many ways, but it mainly affects his/her mental well-being. People tend to think more negatively only when they are alone. Develop your interpersonal skills and your social skills. There are many people waiting to have a friendship with you. Friendship has greater power. A good friendship will change your life in an incredible way.
Eg: Have little chit chats now and then with people in your surroundings/ with people you may know
8) Start writing a journal
Start writing with what you feel. Keep track of your thoughts and your reactions to them. Having a journal will help you to better understand yourself. As you know anxiety does not comes from a place of understanding. When you understand yourself better you know how to handle your problems then you may not need any blog posts or youtube videos or books to help you.
Eg: Today I had no negative thoughts, from morning to night I was in a trip with my friends
9) Meditate
Now you may probably be thinking to skip this point because you know already about this and many people will be telling you to do that. Trust me, properly try it out at least 3 times. It will give you big impact on your life. Meditation is the greatest solution to the problems. Through meditation, you can find solutions to all your problems. Meditation helps you understand what is life.
10) Have a goal, keep on going behind it
A goal can be anything, being happy 24hrs/ building your career/ building your body/ building a home for living. Your goal makes you happy. Your goal provides you with purpose in your life. A goal helps you avoid distractions. Goals help you build determination, focus, and self-control. A goal will help you in develop self-discipline