Stepping back from negative thought patterns and reinforcing positive ones
Recognizing & stepping back from negativity bias
“A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.” said Mahatma Gandhi, considered the father of the Nation and the gentle giant who procured freedom by non-violent means for India from the British who had ruled the country for nearly 200 years. Our mind is no doubt a powerful tool and how we exercise and train ourselves can impact everything including our mindset, outlook, health, career and of course, family.
Psychologists have found that we tend to lean towards negative bias. This means that we feel the sting of a rebuke more powerfully than we feel the joy of praise. Knowing this and being aware of it can have a robust effect on our behavior, decisions we make and even our relationships. As we try to change our behavior patterns, there is an urgent need to reframe the situation and consciously affirm the positive. Adopting a more mindful approach helps us navigate every time we gravitate to the negative and steer us in the opposite direction. Being aware that we are in control of our internal radar is empowering and puts us in control, encouraging us to gravitate away from negativity to happier and more optimistic thoughts.
Anxious Thoughts & Worry
Negative thoughts can be repetitive, swirling around in our minds, dragging us down a whirlpool of darkness. Emotions like anxiety, depression, stress, fear, unworthiness, shame become fused with our thoughts and taking on a reality all their own. Worry is conjuring up thoughts about what could go wrong often creating ‘what if’ scenarios. If we give anxiety and worry oxygen, we give them life, if we distance ourselves from them, we are liberated, relaxed and can change the quality of our whole day and indeed our whole life.
New Habits, New You
Let's vow to cultivate a new habit - to pursue a distinctive thought pattern using four simple steps, to Notice when we embark on a familiar pattern, to Acknowledge that it is a pattern we want to change, to Articulate that we want it to be different and finally to Choose a different behavior that serves our new Goal. Having these tools means being our own best friend. Adopting them and proactively using them are the conscious steps that bring us closer to like, appreciate and even love things around us and create an aura of positivity.
Strengthen Your Success Routine
Our thoughts have unique vibrations according to quantum physics, which brings similar frequencies into our lives. Practicing visualization reinforces our chances of success as our minds have an enormous capacity to connect the invisible dots and achieve the impossible.
Writing is another technique that allows us to consciously put these positive reaffirmations on paper to visualize our destiny. I have also found that writing is therapeutic for coping with my adversities. I also use it as a tool to notate my negative thoughts and when I see them on paper, they don't seem so scary or real and this helps me purge them from my psyche. Observing positive people around me, I have noticed they have an evolved mental capacity that allows them to adapt with ease during adversity.
Resiliency is the key to embraces many constructive traits, enjoy reading this piece from Huffington Post. Unlike negative-minded folk who have a problem for every solution, positive people sustain themselves with core faith, courage and an ability to let things happen, not always believing they need a GPS to guide their path. They surround themselves with other positive people, thereby reinforcing their aura and in trying times they inspire others despite their own personal adversity. As we look around we can learn from Nature - imagine the ocean. Often, we see the surface waves to be tumultuous, heaving but the depths are calm, still and peaceful. Our minds have the same capacity to remain unaffected if we try. There is a perfect stillness in each of us. Just beneath our veneer of conditioning, our ability to ruffle our thoughts and habits which can be turbulent, there is a quiet place inside us and it is always available as a calm refuge. So, let us pledge to send out more positivity into the Universe and it will return to us manifold.
We are stronger together
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