How to Stop Negative Thoughts

[onesteptwostep]

6 Ways to Deal With Negative Thoughts

Negative thoughts can contribute to things such as fear, anxiety, sadness, and trouble coping. Learn more about what you can do to deal with negative thoughts.

www.verywellmind.com

Identify Your Negative Thoughts​

As you observe your thoughts, work on identifying and labeling cognitive distortions and negativity.

For example, if you tend to view yourself as a complete success or failure in every situation, then you are engaging in "black-and-white" thinking. Other negative thinking patterns include:

• Jumping to conclusions: This distortion involves making assumptions about what others are thinking or making negative assumptions about how events will turn out.
• Catastrophizing: This pattern of negative thinking is characterized by always assuming that the worst possible outcome will happen without considering more likely and realistic possibilities.
• Overgeneralization: This pattern is marked by a tendency to apply what happened in one experience to all future experiences. This can make negative experiences seem unavoidable and contribute to feelings of anxiety.
• Labeling: When people label themselves in a negative way, it affects how they feel about themselves in different contexts. Someone who labels themselves as "bad at math," for example, will often feel negative about activities that involve that skill.
• "Should" statements: Thinking marked by "should" statements contribute to a negative perspective by only thinking in terms of what you "ought" to be doing. Such statements are often unrealistic and cause people to feel defeated and pessimistic about their ability to succeed.
• Emotional reasoning: This involves assuming that something is true based on your emotional response to it. For example, if you are feeling nervous, emotional reasoning would lead you to conclude that you must be in danger. This can escalate negative feelings and increase anxiety.
• Personalization and blame: This thought pattern involves taking things personally, even when they are not personal. It often leads people to blame themselves for things they have no control over.

Unhelpful thinking patterns differ in subtle ways. But they all involve distortions of reality and irrational ways of looking at situations and people.

Goldman suggests that this step is all about identifying and labeling negative thoughts. "Now that you have observed the thought, you can identify it as an unhelpful thought (perhaps we've even identified it as an all-or-nothing thought, or another type of cognitive distortion). Just observe it and label it," she suggests.

She also suggests pausing to accept the thought for what it is. Remind yourself that it's just a thought and not a fact.

 

[Black Rose]

A person's empowerment causes them to think differently.

Because negative thoughts start with a disempowerment.

Failure or success is naturally reinforced by a person's ability to perceive options.

With no options available and an ingrained sense of this, hope is lost.

Countering this is about knowing alternatives to break the conditioning.

 

[ZenRaiden]

If I got a penny for every psych video telling people how to not have negative thoughts Id beat Jeff Bezos.

The reality is some people have negative thoughts. They don't just magically go away.

 

[sushi]

you cant erase it, try to balance it out with exercise and other things.

 

[birdsnestfern]

Journal each time you get a compliment so you can reread when needed
Affirmations
Say two positive things about yourself for every negative
Recall what your parent (s) wouldn’t allow as a child and those things they didn’t like about you. Those are your shadows that you pushed down. Look at those parts and fill them up with love and light and accept them.
Sing, dance, create, write, allow feelings.
Sleep well
Feed yourself nuts, avocado, purple plants like dark blueberries, red cabbage, eggs, fish, grapefruit, water and olive oil and omega 3 and magnesium.
Take a magnesium bath or rub magnesium lotion on skin.


Stay away from stressed out people
Did you know if you are near a stressed person their sweat evaporates it’s stress hormone and your skin picks it up and passes stress to you, hormones are contagious because hormones transfer even in same room with others And skin lets it in easily. This may be what mirror empaths are experiencing, hormone exchanges.

Massage and meditation and before each meal take a minute to feel positive so your meal feeds you with same

 

[Puffy]

You definitely can reduce negative thoughts, my negative thoughts are a hell of a lot better than they were 5 years ago lol.

It depends on what the cause of the negative thoughts are. For me over time I've noticed that I have more realistic expectations of myself, I love myself and take care of myself more and have more self-compassion and self-advocacy. These are definitely things that can be practiced.

 

[Black Rose]

It depends on what the cause of the negative thoughts are. For me over time I've noticed that I have more realistic expectations of myself, I love myself and take care of myself more and have more self-compassion and self-advocacy. These are definitely things that can be practiced.

To be realistic we must know what we can and can't do.

Doing what is too difficult or too easy can give inappropriate expectations of ourselves.

There is a balance we often can't find.

 

[birdsnestfern]

 

[Puffy]

It depends on what the cause of the negative thoughts are. For me over time I've noticed that I have more realistic expectations of myself, I love myself and take care of myself more and have more self-compassion and self-advocacy. These are definitely things that can be practiced.

To be realistic we must know what we can and can't do.

Doing what is too difficult or too easy can give inappropriate expectations of ourselves.

There is a balance we often can't find.

I think for me I’ve always believed healing is possible and that has always given me the motivation to persevere.

If someone doesn’t believe healing is possible it likely won’t happen.

That said all of this is a marathon run a step at a time. Change doesn’t happen all at once.

 

[birdsnestfern]

Mala Beads basics:

Rudraksha beads. (Soak in Ghee for 48 hours before wearing). These beads protect your body and make you calm.
If you feel under the weather, put it on, it helps a lot. However, they are not for people who live in families, they are for hermits/aesthetics/people who live alone.

And burning sage clears negative energies around you. Also crystals are protective. Hematite, Citrine, turquoise, selenite, obsidian, whatever you are drawn to.

 

[birdsnestfern]

Amazon has them for $11.99

 

[PassingWords]

Meditation can help. Take things as they come. No good or bad, just as-is.

 

[EndogenousRebel]

Meditation can help. Take things as they come. No good or bad, just as-is.

Yes, separating pure observation, from judgement is a key skill.

 

[ZenRaiden]

Generally what worked for me is as follows.

1. RULE never fight negative thoughts.
2. Be aware of negative thoughts, but don't engage with them. Observe them.
3. Once you are fully aware of negative thoughts, just relax, and refocus your attention on to something else. Breath.
4. Release and relax.

Usually negative thoughts don't go away.
But after sleeping doing this exercise they grow much weaker.
So generally negative thoughts lose power over time as LONG as you don't engage with them.

If negative thoughts are highly charged with anxiety, give your self space and time to relax and breath, pacing is acceptable for releasing nervousness also recommend things like shaking your body to get rid of tension or doing some soothing movies or exercises - try experimenting here.

Also don't engage with negative thought patterns, they usually come back stronger if you try to repress them or fight them.

Now here is something pretty good for being relaxed and having clarity.

Also a good way to get of ruminations and negative thought patterns is writing them down on a word document.
What ever negative mind brings up however unfiltered it is, whatever recurring pattern, write it down on piece of paper or word document. You can save it or delete it.
Next day that pattern will be gone.
Sometimes cleaning your drive might bring up new patterns repeat again.

 

[fractalwalrus]

6 Ways to Deal With Negative Thoughts

Negative thoughts can contribute to things such as fear, anxiety, sadness, and trouble coping. Learn more about what you can do to deal with negative thoughts.

www.verywellmind.com

Identify Your Negative Thoughts​

As you observe your thoughts, work on identifying and labeling cognitive distortions and negativity.

For example, if you tend to view yourself as a complete success or failure in every situation, then you are engaging in "black-and-white" thinking. Other negative thinking patterns include:

• Jumping to conclusions: This distortion involves making assumptions about what others are thinking or making negative assumptions about how events will turn out.
• Catastrophizing: This pattern of negative thinking is characterized by always assuming that the worst possible outcome will happen without considering more likely and realistic possibilities.
• Overgeneralization: This pattern is marked by a tendency to apply what happened in one experience to all future experiences. This can make negative experiences seem unavoidable and contribute to feelings of anxiety.
• Labeling: When people label themselves in a negative way, it affects how they feel about themselves in different contexts. Someone who labels themselves as "bad at math," for example, will often feel negative about activities that involve that skill.
• "Should" statements: Thinking marked by "should" statements contribute to a negative perspective by only thinking in terms of what you "ought" to be doing. Such statements are often unrealistic and cause people to feel defeated and pessimistic about their ability to succeed.
• Emotional reasoning: This involves assuming that something is true based on your emotional response to it. For example, if you are feeling nervous, emotional reasoning would lead you to conclude that you must be in danger. This can escalate negative feelings and increase anxiety.
• Personalization and blame: This thought pattern involves taking things personally, even when they are not personal. It often leads people to blame themselves for things they have no control over.

Unhelpful thinking patterns differ in subtle ways. But they all involve distortions of reality and irrational ways of looking at situations and people.

Goldman suggests that this step is all about identifying and labeling negative thoughts. "Now that you have observed the thought, you can identify it as an unhelpful thought (perhaps we've even identified it as an all-or-nothing thought, or another type of cognitive distortion). Just observe it and label it," she suggests.

She also suggests pausing to accept the thought for what it is. Remind yourself that it's just a thought and not a fact.

I'd like to add that this takes dedicated practice. It is one thing to realize the flaws inherent in our reasoning, it is another to actively attempt to identify and correct them in the self. It is not a pleasant realization to make, but one that is necessary should one choose to try and get closer to the apple of truth that seems to continuously elude our bite.