4 Simple Ways to Stop Your Negative Thinking
You’re being attacked by ANTs
The emotion starts to build up in you because of something you’re experiencing or something someone said to you.
You feel your heart beating faster, you begin to perspire, you feel muscle tension and your brain begins to be attacked by ANTs — Automatic Negative Thoughts.
Being attacked by ANTs can leave you feeling frustrated, anxious, angry and/or depressed.
What happens is — when you’re stressed, your brain is in a state of heightened arousal, which can lead to your plunging negative thinking.
That’s because stress activates your brain’s amygdala, the part of your brain that regulates your fight-or-flight response.
The amygdala is designed to help you respond to threats in your environment; but when it’s constantly activated by stress, it can lead to negative thinking.
Your raging amygdala
This is because the amygdala is also involved in processing your emotions, and when it’s overactive, it can lead to intense negative emotions like anxiety and fear.
Additionally, stress can also impair the functioning of your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that helps you think rationally, make decisions, and help calm the ret of your brain.
When your prefrontal cortex is impaired, it can be harder to control your thoughts and emotions, which can then lead to more negative thinking.
The ANTs come fast and furious
Once your brain shifts into survival mode due to your stress, it becomes extremely challenging for your brain and body not to succumb to the impact of your negative thinking.
Your overstimulated stressed amygdala reacts in 1/12 of a second — which makes your ANTs surprisingly quick and powerful.
Your thinking becomes less logical, your sense of time is distorted and your functional IQ in that moment actually drops.
Yes, the more stressed you are — the dumber you get.
But you can control your stressed thinking, rather than your stressed thinking controlling you.
🔥 Here are four (4) simple ways to stop your negative thinking:
- Recognize when you’re having a negative thought. This is the first step to taking control of your thoughts. When you notice a negative thought, take a moment to acknowledge it.
- Challenge the negative thought. Once you recognize a negative thought, try to identify if it’s realistic or not. Ask yourself if there’s evidence to support the thought, or if it’s based on assumptions or past experiences that may no longer be relevant.
- Replace the negative thought with a positive one. Once you’ve challenged the negative thought and determined that it’s not realistic, try to replace it with a more positive or balanced thought. For example, if you’re having a negative thought about yourself, try to think of something you’re good at or something you’re proud of.
- Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of being present and fully engaged in the moment, without judging yourself or your thoughts. When you’re mindful, you can observe your thoughts without getting caught up in them. This can help you distance yourself from automatic negative thoughts and respond to them in a more balanced way.
Also, there’s a surprisingly positive way to use your negative thinking.
When your negative thoughts begin to ruminate — you can be empowered to take advantage of your negative emotional state.
You know the feeling. You’re feeling stressed or emotionally charged and your thoughts quickly go negative.
You’re anxious about what’s happening in the moment. You’re angry that people are responding differently than you expected. You’re saddened by the prospect of losing something.
Your ANTS (Automatic Negative Thoughts) can overtake your thinking in milliseconds.
Thinking negatively can be useful for you in some situations.
It can help you anticipate potential problems and motivate you to make plans to prevent them. It can also help you prepare for the worst-case scenario, which can be beneficial in high-pressure situations.
You can use your negative thinking as a tool to generate potential solutions. For example — if you think about all the ways a plan could fail, you may come up with ways to prevent those failures.
You can Train Your Brain to destroy your ANTs and shift your thinking patterns and habits.
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