Fighting negative thoughts is one of the biggest struggles you can encounter in your life.
You may be fighting limiting beliefs you developed in the early years of your life and they now start to disrupt your image of a good life.
Fortunately, however, there are a number of practical things you can do to help yourself stop thinking negatively.
Here are 7 of the best ways to push back negative thoughts.
1. Engage the negative thought
Start becoming aware of these limiting thoughts as they appear. How are you feeling while they are coming up? Are you tired, stressed, hungry, disappointed or something else? When we try to ignore negative thoughts, they don’t just go away. To beat them, you must first recognize them for what they are. Tell yourself, “I know what this is; it’s just a story I’m telling myself, and it’s untrue.” You’d be surprised how quickly you can defeat your negative thinking this way.
2. Positive affirmations
Positive affirmations are a great tool for overcoming negative thoughts. You may try to say an affirmation as soon as a negative thought tries to occupy your mind. For instance, if you’re working towards attracting a potential partner and you find yourself thinking that you’re not good enough for this person, you can say something like “I am a good, lovable person and I will find a great partner to share my life with.”
Furthermore, daily positive affirmations can even reprogram your thinking as a whole, which makes them an indispensable tool for keeping a positive attitude. Choose your affirmations with care, and try looking at yourself in the mirror when you recite them.
3. Get some exercising in
When you feel like your head is about to explode due to negativity, try easing your mind by working on your body.
Go out for a 30-minute run, do some weights, swim, or ride your bike.
This will help you immensely in expelling your inner tension and worries. It will, in turn, also make you more focused and relaxed.
4. Don’t expect things to always go the you want them to
Expecting things to always go your way can rob you of the chance for true happiness. Make certain your vision of a good life is rooted in reality. If your plan goes to fruition in a year instead of a few months does it really make such a big difference? Perfectionism can be a huge obstacle in your way to ultimate success and wellbeing.
5. Get it out in the open and talk to someone close to you
Keeping all this negativity inside you will only make things worse. Let it out by talking about it with a close friend or family member. Even a ten-minute-long conversation can take a huge load off your mind.
This person will see things from a different perspective and hence could be able to give you a solution to your problem you never could have thought of by yourself.
6. Devise a positive morning routine
The mind starts its motor early in the early morning. When you’re in control of your thinking, you’re in control of your life. Negative thoughts can slow down your progress immensely. You must capture every negative thought and replace it with a thought of hope and motivation. One of the best ways to harvest these results is by developing a morning routine where you read or listen to something encouraging and positive as soon as you wake up. But first you must cut out negative sources of information such as watching or listening to the news…
7. Practice gratitude
Be grateful for the things in your life you may be taking for granted. When negative thoughts have taken our mind hostage it becomes difficult to see all the good life has to offer. Especially those little things many of us see as e given.
Some of these things might be having enough food on the table, a house and a cozy bed to sleep in, clean drinking water, as well as your loving friends and family.
Do you have any tips of your own on fighting negative thoughts you would like to share with us?
Let us know by joining the conversation in the comments and please share this article if you’ve enjoyed the read.
