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MBG 5 Negative Thought Patterns You Need to Drop Right Now
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It’s pretty easy to remove toxins from our foods, and for our peace of mind, we sometimes need to remove toxic people from our lives but did you know that many thought patterns are as dangerous as eating pesticide laden foods? It’s true!
Negative thinking will do nothing for you except contribute to the development of fear and anxiety. The crucial thing in changing negative thoughts is to understand why you think that way and then find strategies to change those thoughts or, at the very least, reduce the impact they have on your life.
You can’t have a healthy life style if your mind is filled with toxic thoughts. So check out these 5 super negative ways of thinking that you need to dump today!
1. The Should Have’s
Try to think of the “shoulds”, as in I should have done this or I should have done that or I should have chosen that or even, I should have never blah blah blah. You get the picture. When you tell yourself that you should have, you imply to yourself that what you did was not good enough and that in one way or another, we just didn’t make the grade. When your day starts filling up with those should have’s, you will find that you are depressed and without motivation to do or try anything. Find out how to avoid depression.
Here’s how to dump this habit. If you really should be doing something right now, then do it, or make time to do it. If it’s not that important, then forget about it with NO REGRETS. You have plenty of good things going on in your life right now so don’t waste your time with should have’s. A (not so very) famous therapist once said, “Should’s are sh@t, so flush ‘em.” She was so right!
2. Catastrophizing
How many of us can go from life is so fine to OMG, my life is SO MESSED UP in three seconds or less, raise your hands? You know how it goes; your date cancels out on you so that must mean you will never get married and die an old maid! Or your boss assigns you an assistant for the next project so that must mean he doesn’t trust you to do it on your own and he’s sure to fire you next week! Well, don’t feel bad, you’re not alone with that kind of thinking, look around, there are lots of hands raised here. For some reason, many of us can take that proverbial anthill and make it into a mountain. This kind of thinking will only create tons of stress, fear, and anxiety, perhaps even to the point of hopelessness.
Stop this kind of thinking by writing down a list of the facts that are based in reality. Then list 3 worst case scenarios and 3 best case scenarios. When you look at the cold, hard facts you will see that the situation isn’t nearly as bad as your imagination has told you. Read more about 10 things happy people understand.
3. The Filter and Focus Trick
Ok, all you negative Nellies; you know how this trick works. You can find the dark lining in a golden cloud. You filter out all the good stuff to find only the negative stuff and then you make that your focus, ignoring anything and everything that is positive.
Ok, it’s time to dump that skewed thinking pattern. You need to view things from a more balanced and clear perspective. There are few things in life that are so black and white, so completely good or completely bad. Look at things for what they really are.
SEE ALSO: 10 Signs You are Not Following Your True Path
4. Generalizing
Generalizing is when we come up with (or hear) those one liners that include everything or everyone such as “All men are pigs.” Or “All French people are so rude!” One bad or negative experience colors our views of all related things.
To break this habit, watch out for those “all”, or “none”, “everything”, and “nothing” words.
5. Don’t Get so Personal
If no one has told you this lately, the world does not revolve around you. The next time you want to take something personally, think twice. For example, when a friend tells you that they can’t come to your dinner party, don’t begin thinking that this must mean that they don’t really like you after all, that maybe they don’t like your cooking, that maybe they don’t like coming to your house because they don’t like the area you live in, etc. etc. etc.
Stop taking the blame for everything or assuming that it’s all about you. Maybe your friend can’t come to your party because her grandmother is sick, maybe she’s sick, maybe it’s her wedding anniversary. Try thinking about others and not so much about yourself. You can’t control what another person thinks or does; after all, you really do only have power over yourself.
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