What Causes Negative Thoughts?
What Causes Negative Thoughts?
How can I be happy when life is so stressful?
I can’t remember when I last had a good laugh.
This Covid-19 epidemic is driving me nuts!
These are just a few of the comments I have heard from clients coming for energy healing and it is quite understandable under the circumstances.
What happens to our vibration when we have these thoughts – what happens to our immune system and what happens to our susceptibility to illness?
I’m sure not many people think about the consequences of these negative thoughts and no matter how justified they may be, it really can be the start of a downward spiral in our health and wellbeing.
Stress from negative thinking creates changes in the brain that may affect your likelihood of mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, schizophrenia, and mood disorders.
Poorly-managed negative emotions are not good for your health. Negative attitudes and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness can create chronic stress, which upsets the body's hormone balance, depletes the brain chemicals required for happiness, and damages the immune system. Chronic stress can actually decrease our lifespan.
When you think back to some of the unhappy and frustrating times in your life, you will realize now that you prolonged these experiences because you spent too much time in your head. You were probably were either worrying about the future or thinking about past mistakes, missed opportunities, and all the other events in your life where you felt dissatisfied and frustrated. You probably didn’t even realize how much impact negative thoughts had on your life,
Did you know that we have between 40,000-80,000 thoughts every day? Makes you realized then that the thousands of negative thoughts you were having on a daily basis were preventing you from not only enjoying life’s experiences but draining your energy and distracting you from focusing on what was important in your life.
In this article, you will understand why you have negative thoughts and how to deal with them.
What Causes Negative Thoughts?
The first thing to do is to find the why — what triggers set off your negative thinking? If you can find the answer as to why you are constantly having so many negative thoughts, then you will be one step closer to better managing the impact that negative thinking is having on your life.
Cortisol is a hormone, which is mainly released at times of stress and has many important functions in our body. Having the right cortisol balance is essential for human health, and you can have problems if your adrenal gland releases too much or too little cortisol.
Our brain loves cortisol, as it is there to warn us about imminent danger. The problem occurs when we constantly put our bodies and minds in situations of high stress and negative thinking, as this causes cortisol to overload. Our brain starts to develop patterns of negative thinking, and we start to normalize our thought patterns.
We train our brains to think we are no longer in imminent danger – this is our new normal, but our cortisol levels become dangerously high. Over time, the body will start to show signs of wear and tear – heart attacks, depression, anxiety, mental illness, etc.
If you don’t keep your negative thinking under control, you will eventually have to deal with serious health issues.
Martin Seligman, an American psychologist, educator, and author of self-help books, is a strong promoter within the scientific community of his theories on positive psychology and well-being. He says that the three leading causes of negative thoughts for most people are:
Fear of the Future
People can fear the unknown and, as a result, they start thinking that the worst things can happen, such as failure or disaster. The future hasn’t happened, so people who fear it are distracted from living in the present, which is where they have more control over how they live their lives.
Anxiety About the Present
Many of us worry about what others think of us, what the traffic will be like going home, or if we are doing a good job. If we are in a toxic environment or relationship, we are more susceptible to negative thoughts.
Regret About the Past
Everyone does things that they are embarrassed or ashamed of. People who are prone to negative thinking tend to dwell on past mistakes and failures more than others.
No matter what causes your negative thoughts, you can manage them with some strategies. Start dealing with your negative thoughts as soon as you recognize that they are about to become a big problem in your life.
Steps to Manage Your Negative Thoughts
It is unrealistic to think that you will be able to eliminate all negative thoughts. A more realistic and sustainable approach is to learn strategies to manage your negative thinking so that you have control over how you want to live your life.
Challenge Your Negative Thoughts
This strategy is all about teaching yourself how to counter your negative thoughts. There are 5 questions you can ask yourself:
Is this thought true? Is there a basis for this negative belief?
Is this thought giving your power or is it taking away your power?
Can you put a positive spin on this thought or learn from it?
What would it be like if you didn’t have these negative thoughts?
Is this negative thought hiding you from issues you need to address?
Distract Your Negative Thoughts by Focusing on Something Else
Visualization is a useful strategy to help you distract yourself from your negative thoughts. Try to picture yourself doing an activity that you love to do—for example, shopping, reading books, listening to music, etc. The key is to train your brain to think about something completely different for at least 30 seconds.
Be disciplined in trying this technique. Over time, you will have trained your brain to go in a different direction every time your negative thoughts come up.
The Balloon Exercise – Throw Away Your Negative Thoughts
I like this strategy. Essentially, what you are doing here is throwing your negative thoughts away.
Clearing your head of negative thoughts by writing them down and letting them go in a physical way releases you from a lot of negative energy. Some people write down their negative thoughts on a piece of paper and throw them in the rubbish bin or burn it.
Or you can write your negative thoughts, fears, and regrets on an inflated balloon, and then release it into the sky. Find the technique that feels best for you.
Surround Yourself With Positive People
The people that you spend your time with have a huge influence on how you live your life.
If you want to better manage your negative thoughts, then spend time with a friend who has positive energy, a positive outlook on life, and is willing to listen to you share your thoughts and feelings.
Reframe Your Thoughts
Our mind has this amazing ability to convince us of something that isn’t really true. These untrue and inaccurate thoughts reinforce our negative thinking.
The next time you are thinking that you are to blame for everything that is going wrong, stop! What you are doing is assuming and personalizing your thoughts and reinforcing this with negative thinking.
Take a few minutes to acknowledge the great things you do, write these down, and say these wonderful things out loud to yourself. Another strategy you could do is to challenge these thoughts with the questions outlined.
Remember - No one knows enough to be a pessimist!
Accept your thoughts – positive and negative – but don’t become them.
With Love & Light,
Roger