If you think sad, bad, or negative thoughts, you are going to feel bad. If you’re unhappy, you may not realize the relationship between your thought processes and your mood. Need convincing? Try this little exercise:
Think of a time in your life when you enjoyed yourself. It might have been a holiday or a trip to the park. As you think about that time you may feel a bit happier. Now think of a time when you were sad, like at a funeral, and you will probably feel quite down.
Your thoughts can be your best friends or your worst enemies. They can lift you up, and they can pull you down. If you want to feel happier and calmer, you need to become aware of the way thoughts affect you and to start questioning negative thoughts. You may argue that this isn’t realistic. You’d like to be more positive, but life is tough and chances are things won’t work out the way you want. You’re right. It is unrealistic to expect positive outcomes to everything; when you do, you set yourself up for disappointment. But the next time you are negative about something or tell yourself that you are useless or you can’t cope, ask yourself instead, “Am I being realistic? Are my thoughts misleading me? Am I taking into account other possibilities?”
Don’t believe everything you think! Question it. You don’t always believe what other people tell you or what you read in the papers, so why accept everything your thoughts tell you? You don’t need to replace negative thoughts with positive ones, but you do need to start replacing them with more realistic ones.
What is your biggest challenge in extricating old negative thoughts?
