Do you find that as you age you tend to think more negatively, or believe that the bad often trumps the good? Unfortunately, if you do have this kind of negative thinking, it can negatively influence your life and can cause more worry, stress, and even depression. If this is the case, you need to slowly overcome your negative thinking, and change it into a positive one. Here are 5 tips for overcoming your negative thinking.
Learn from Other People’s Successes
One way to overcome your negative thinking is to learn from other people’s success. Be it learning through books, online success stories, or even through the people near you, learn about how they have successfully dealt with negative thoughts. By doing so, you will be able to learn from them first-hand and hopefully, will also be inspired by how they managed to turn their lives around.
Actively Acknowledge Them
While this may sound strange, actively acknowledging your negative thoughts can help you overcome them. Here is how you can do so. Whenever you have any negative thoughts, you need to first verbally acknowledge that these thoughts are overtly negative ones. This is effective because you would then recognize that these thoughts are too negative, and there must be a better way around them. Verbally acknowledging them serves as a trigger to remind yourself that you are trying to be on a journey of more positive thoughts.
Understand What You Are Thinking
Next, you need to recognize what kind of negative thoughts they are. This can help you overcome them. Are you simply thinking in “black and white” and not considering other alternatives? Or perhaps, you are jumping to conclusions, assuming the worst-case scenario, overgeneralizing a situation, or making emotional reasonings? By understanding what exactly your negative thoughts are, you will be able to logically understand that these negative thoughts are merely distorted and irrational. Remind yourself that it is just a thought, but it is not a fact.
Create a List of Positive Affirmations
Creating a list of positive affirmations can also help you overcome your negative thinking. For instance, if you often negatively think of yourself, it will be useful to create a list of positive things about your skills, abilities, or even the fact that you are trying to improve and change your negative thinking to positive ones. In addition, you can also write general positive things like how the weather is great, or that today is showing your favorite television program. After doing so, remember to post the list somewhere you can see it daily, and make an effort to see it before bed and when you first wake up. By starting and ending the day on a positive note, your negative thoughts will diminish as you are focused and looking forward to the more positive things.
Reach Out to Others
One common reason why mature adults have negative thoughts is that they are lonely or isolated. If this is you, you should reach out to others, and keep in touch with your family, friends, or community to overcome these negative thoughts. After all, humans are social creatures, so it is natural you will feel unhappy when you do not have sufficient social interactions. Therefore, join a new community or find new hobbies with others to meet new people with similar interests. Alternatively, reach out to old friends for a nice conversation.
