Life gives us challenges, sometimes without giving us a break to breathe. In this matter, having negativity surrounding you is normal, but feeding into those thoughts or holding onto them lowers your quality of life and the way you look at it. Negative thoughts can be poisonous to your self-image and the way you perceive yourself. Why do we feel the need to criticize our own self-esteem like this?
Shutting off your negative thoughts is much easier said than done. However, once taught how to cope with them not taking over your mind, you could get used to shutting them away easily.
Negative thoughts come and go, when you’re stressed out and under pressure, for example, you tend to start thinking of worst-case scenarios and gathering up unwanted thoughts that just keep piling up one another in your mind.
Seven tips to help you learn how to shut off negativity:
- Write your thoughts down. Scribbling your thoughts on paper will help you release some of the tension built up inside your mind. This allows you to come forward with yourself and figure out what or where the issue is. This way, you can move on from what is stopping you to move forward.
- Keep track of your thoughts. Generally, negative thoughts are a product of cognitive distortions and patterns of irrational thoughts. Keep track of your thought process like you are viewing them from someone else’s point of view. Look at your thoughts as if they are floating bubbles that you can pop. Accept your negative thoughts, and, sooner or later, you could be in control to pop all the bubbles.
- Rethink any question you are obsessing over. Having an obsessive thought pattern over an obstacle you are not able to move past from may be harmful to your mental health. Ask yourself if what you are thinking about has a solution, if you would be able to tackle it, and how you would do that. It is important to resolve the thoughts that are getting in the way before trying to move on from one thing to the other by tackling things one at a time.
- Avoid things that can trigger negative thoughts. This could be a picture, certain people, a song, or even a smell that you have associated with at a bad timing in your life. Figure out what may lead you to your negative space and avoid it. Work on replacing these triggers with other things that awaken pleasurable feelings inside you.
- Take physical action over your thoughts. When you find yourself stuck deep down in your thoughts, get up and move around. Changing your lifestyle in order to wake up your positivity is not very easy when your mind is suffocated with negative thoughts. This could take time for you to adjust, but it is never impossible. You could try new things such as dancing, going on a run, experimenting with your creativity, going to the gym, and even changing your eating habits into healthier ones. Let your body take control and bring your mind to another place.
- Surround yourself with positive people. If the people around you are positive, it would be much easier for you to keep your negative thoughts at a distance. People around us shape the way we think and feel about ourselves. Walking away from people who cause you to think badly about yourself will keep you stuck in a loop of negative thoughts. Surround yourself with optimistic people who truly care about your wellbeing.
- Repeat positive affirmations everyday. Thinking negatively tends to be a habit that is picked up on. Instead of letting these negative thoughts control you, pick up the habit of telling yourself positive affirmations. This will clear up your thoughts and reinforce positive scenarios in your mind. Write these affirmations anywhere that is in sight: on sticky notes, on your phone, or anywhere that you would be able to read them easily. Remind yourself that you are able to move past any obstacle you are going through.