One of the most representative children's stories of all time shows Peter Pan saying that happy thoughts make us fly. In other words, to go beyond what you can imagine, you have to have optimism, keep positivity high.
Yet everyone goes through a misfortune and has a bad thought. But when it becomes frequent or routine, it can become harmful, including for the brain. That's why knowing how to avoid negative thoughts is important! It is a matter of maintaining balance and preserving health. Learn about it below!
How do negative thoughts affect us?
It is part of our preservation instinct to defend ourselves from threats. Therefore, we prioritize our attention to what is negative, so that we are not taken by surprise. For example, if you hear on the TV news about a wave of burglaries in the area where you live, you are likely to have a negative thought linked to fear and will have a more cautious attitude. The problem arises when we cling to this type of thinking and make it a pattern in our way of thinking, acting and relating, causing it to last longer than necessary to protect itself.
According to the 2018 study, entitled “Interpretation training to target repetitive negative thinking in Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Depression”, by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, England, repetitive negative thinking (rumination), common in people suffering from clinical anxiety and depression, can be minimized with the simple practice of making positive interpretations, reducing the effects of these disorders and improving mood.
When negative thoughts recur, they have a great ability to affect a person's mental and physical health. In the long run, they can develop into generalized anxiety, panic disorder, and depression. This is because they cause an intense discharge of unpleasant emotions in the body, which prevent the production of happiness hormones such as endorphin and serotonin, triggering stress. They can still generate physical pathologies, such as cardiovascular diseases and digestive disorders.
In addition, they lower self-esteem, influence behaviors, cause suffering and decrease well-being and quality of life. They take away the opportunity to think positively, show gratitude, appreciate the good things in each situation and laugh, making the person infected with sadness, irritation, discouragement and stress.
Negative thinking, even without conscious awareness, if constant, can cause damage and reduce the brain's resistance to Alzheimer's, according to the study "Repetitive negative thinking is associated with amyloid, tau, and cognitive decline", published in the journal "Alzheimer's & Dementia” (The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, USA), in June 2020.
In the study, researchers found that people with repetitive negative thought patterns had cognitive and memory decline (one of the early signs of Alzheimer's), being more likely to have amyloid and tau deposits in their brains, biomarkers for the disease.
How to clear the mind of negative thoughts?
According to the study by “Queen's University”, in Canada, published in the scientific journal Nature Communications in June 2020 under the title “Brain meta-state transitions demarcate thoughts across task contexts exposing the mental noise of trait neuroticism”, the healthy adult human being produces more than six thousand thoughts a day, both when awake and at rest, whether positive or negative.
Avoiding negative thoughts is beneficial for mental and physical health, interpersonal relationships, self-perception, professional career, and personal development. Feeding positive thoughts is a way to ward off negativity and empower yourself to face life's challenges. In addition, it prevents brain synapses from specializing in producing a pattern of bad thoughts.
Taking care of our thoughts, like physical exercise, must be a permanent activity, as they generate actions. If they are negative, it is likely that they are not constructive and healthy. It is necessary to activate neuroplasticity and train the brain to create synapses that allow an optimistic model of thinking, acting and living with better quality.
Thus, several strategies can be adopted so that negative thoughts only fulfill their role of self-defense and do not become repetitive or echo in the mind, focusing on the past or future and missing the present moment, where in fact everything is happening. Are they:
1 – Find out why they exist
Try to get to know yourself. When you know your emotions, your reactions, the way you deal with your feelings, your frustrations and your limitations, you discover the triggers for negative thoughts and you can define actions to maintain self-control and good mood in any circumstance. You start to have a more positive attitude in the face of some unavoidable situations and more clarity of reality.
Self-knowledge is important because with it it is possible to identify one's own motivations, thoughts, feelings and behaviors. For this, some techniques can be very useful, such as meditation, yoga, mindfulness, family constellation, coaching, thetahealing, psychotherapy, etc.
Even techniques such as meditation, yoga and mindfulness help maintain control of the mind, facilitating the identification and intervention of positive and negative thoughts. They also allow you to focus on the present moment and promote a more objective view of reality.
2 – Face your fears and insecurities
Negative thoughts can be an instrument for personal improvement and for discovering one's own beliefs, limitations, insecurities, illusions and fears, which end up generating them. Therefore they can be used as a resource of empowerment and as a path to transformation. Seek support in therapies, alternative or conventional.
It is essential to realize that, in the face of fears and insecurities or other factors that can generate negativity, it is possible to see optimism, love, kindness, gratitude and compassion, that is, there are opportunities to be happier.
Even this look without excessive criticism, facing yourself in a caring and resilient way, is a way of not allowing the inner voice to keep saying in the mind: “See, how are you incapable of doing that?”. So challenge yourself to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself! Take this inner journey. Consider that the process can be enriching. If something doesn't work, try again until you succeed.
3 – Cultivate gratitude
Adopt the practice of gratitude in your life. It brings a positive look to reality and makes you think about achievements, good results, good attitudes and your own strengths. It helps to value your personal talents and to raise your self-esteem. At the same time, it allows us to extract important lessons from difficult moments. It even makes it easier to recognize thoughts about yourself, people, situations and the world in a more conscious and positive way.
The act of giving thanks brings a vision that frees people from irritation, impatience, hostility, helplessness and the role of victim of circumstances. It helps to let go of regrets, to overcome failures, disappointments and frustrations. It brings satisfaction and broadens perception. In addition, it connects them to spirituality and the faith that life is full of miracles and blessings, of love and co-creation.
Thanking is an option. But it teaches compassion, perseverance and forgiveness. Increases enthusiasm and efficiency. It brings out feelings of joy, kindness and good mood. Awakens peace and lightness of mind.
4 – Change your habits
To avoid bad thoughts, it is important to change some habits so that they give way to positive thoughts. It is worth remembering that a habit is something that we do on automatic pilot, without much reflection or with less awareness, because it is a type of memory, of consolidated behavior.
The point is that, when we want or need to get out of the automatic way of thinking or acting, what is memorized tends to prevail and soon there is a justification for continuing to do the same as always. It's self-sabotage. It's like an inner voice says: “It is useless to do otherwise!”. It works like a limiting belief.
So changing negative thoughts means working to break that mental road. For that:
- question your justifications and beliefs and allow yourself to see other sides of a situation to change the pattern.
- review your ideas, attitudes and allow yourself to face your emotions, even if they bring some suffering. Learn from them. Break through the self-protection that blocks your development.
- see in new perspectives, make exceptions to your own rules. Allow yourself to think differently. Break the routine. Exercise flexibility, avoiding judgments.
- identify triggers that prevent changing habits. For example, if you believe that you will not do well at a certain task, think about what makes you think that way. What would happen if you did? Allow yourself to get out of the sameness. Venture out of your comfort zone. Produce new thoughts, other actions, emotions and feelings. Cherish yourself! Respect your essence. Promote a new less mechanical and more conscious mindset.
5 – Wait and don’t rush
Once the bad thoughts have been identified, take your time and connect with the present moment, the here and now. Keep calm and focus on the process of developing and nurturing positive thoughts. Remember, it's constant work.
Talk to someone you trust or a therapist about your feelings, emotions, and perceptions. Let go of your discomforts to avoid mental exhaustion, nervous breakdown, tantrums, muscle pain and crying and anxiety attacks. Don't be intimidated or hesitate and ask for help.
Remember that negative thoughts will occur. Yet they should be less marked than good thoughts. If a bad thought occurs, think of something happy, a good memory, loved ones, the beauty of life. Listen to music, watch a funny movie, chat with a friend, read an interesting article, take a walk, move around, dance, clap, or do anything else you enjoy doing. But don't be in a hurry! Go at your own pace. Assimilate and enjoy the new experience. Nurture yourself with self-confidence.
6 – Make contact with God
One of the ways to eliminate bad thoughts is to recognize the daily blessings that are provided in the form of joys and accomplishments, as well as in the form of adversity to promote learning. It's connecting to spirituality and the Holy Spirit that dwells in you and in each of us. So make contact with God! Pray! Give thanks and ask for divine help to strengthen yourself. Read Bible Psalm 139.
Other practices to avoid negative thoughts
In addition to the previous actions, other practices can be adopted in order to avoid negative thoughts and achieve a better quality of life. Among them are:
1 – Relax more
This is a simple and effective suggestion, because it helps the mind to change focus and move away from what is wrong. So do things that bring you pleasure, that lift you up and improve your mood. Connect with nature, take a deep breath, realize the peace and beauty that surround you. Take a walk and look around you, with a look of reception and gratitude. Cook, watch a movie, read a book, go to an art exhibition. Keep your mind pleasantly busy.
2 – Ir to terapia
For both self-knowledge and a more assertive and targeted intervention to eliminate bad thoughts, go to therapy. Use professional help, without fear of showing yourself and seeking tranquility of mind and body. Transform yourself with traditional or alternative techniques. Allow yourself to find out about yourself. Learn to meditate. Connect with your spirituality. Anyway, find yourself again, reinvent yourself!
3 – Surround yourself with good people
Positive thoughts arise from good times, from memories built with situations of happiness and pleasure, in environments in which we feel confident and safe. So surround yourself with good people, high spirits and with high self-esteem. Look to constructive examples of optimism. Join to chat, to know ideas, new ways of seeing life. Have a good laugh. Find out that many have similar problems. Seek to be with people who help your brain produce hormones of happiness.
4 – Stop claiming
Complaining and lamentation bring up the past and therefore give permission for bad thoughts to arise. So focus on the solution, the present moment and the possibilities to evolve. Change the perspective and start to nurture optimism, with opportunities to do better. Learn from possible mistakes.
5 – Avoid negative information
Television, radio and the internet transmit information of all kinds, including negative ones. And if you are faced with something tragic or sad, read the psalm suggested in this article or visualize something positive and beautiful. Don't avoid your emotions. Keep empathy. And let them flow, but don't let them dominate your thoughts, especially if they don't directly influence your life.
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Finally, eliminating negative thoughts requires a conscious decision and persistent action. It requires finding balance. While they can be beneficial in the sense of self-defense, if they persist, they create an undesirable behavior pattern and can lead to mental disorders, physical and relationship problems. And yes! Positive thoughts can make you fly. They promote the self-confidence necessary for you to take constructive action and evolve. So strive for your thoughts to be guided by optimism and bring you happiness.
