Each of us has had times in our lives where we have had a lot of negative thoughts. It can be hard to keep positive thoughts in our heads when we come across these negative thoughts. We all know that being positive is the best thing for our minds and our bodies. However, if you have had a time when you doubted how positive you were, then you know what it feels like to have ‘negative thoughts.’
We all have those negative thoughts that hang around in our minds because they are so unpleasant to think about. We can’t get rid of them, but we also can’t get rid of them, either. We’ve all heard of cognitive bias: our brains are naturally wired to focus on the negative, and we often forget that the good stuff that we do is pretty good — or at least, we think it is.
Negative thoughts can be a real pain. There are many cases of psychologists and counselors who use them to help their patients. But there are also cases where they are the cause of people feeling sad, depressed, or in pain. Some people say that their thoughts are what cause them to do things that they would not do without the influence of others. But is this true? There are several cases where negative thoughts are the cause of actions that bring benefits to the person.
Negative thoughts come and go, but the persistent ones are the ones that can cause you to get stuck in the same cycle of hopelessness. You may be thinking: “I have a lot of positive and productive thoughts. I’m happy. I’m confident. I’m productive. My life is good. What’s wrong with me?” It’s hard to see your thoughts for what they are. You think that thoughts are the problem when your thoughts are causing you to have your thoughts.
Negative thoughts can be a hard thing to shake. They can be such an issue that they can cause people to feel sick, depressed, and anxious. They can drive others away, cause us to avoid activities, and start to have trouble with our day-to-day lives. These thoughts can then start to build up until we feel like we cannot go on.
Negative thoughts have a way of lingering in the back of our minds, never totally disappearing even when the situations that triggered them have gone. A certain smell or location, a certain scenery, a certain person: the same negative thought pops up, again and again, even years later.
These thoughts can lead to many unwanted outcomes. When you run into difficulties in your life, it’s easy to become mired in a downward spiral of self-doubt, mess with your emotions, and sabotage your ability to find solutions.
It’s not like there’s a single place where they originate. Rather, they originate in a vast network of interacting networks in our brain together with our thoughts and interactions between our thoughts. Negative thoughts, for example, might be transmitted by a friend who says, “I’m not going to be able to find a job.” These thoughts might be transmitted by a person who says, “I don’t have a shot at a job.” The transmission of such thoughts can be amplified by the media, which adds weight to our fears.
Many people experience negative thoughts and find that they are perplexing. Because of this, they often fail to recognize the negative thinking patterns that impact their livecs. However, the conscious mind cannot control how the unconscious mind thinks, and as the saying states, “You can’t control other people. You can only control how you think”.
We all have negative thoughts, but it isn’t necessary to let them get to us. The key is to recognize that thoughts are just that—they are thoughts. They don’t have to be accurate, and they don’t have to be constant. Should I worry about that person’s comment? Sure, but so what? There’s no reason to let it get to me.
It’s impossible to avoid negative thoughts, but you can control how you respond to them. The way you respond to thoughts about yourself or your life can determine the outcome.