To successfully overcome negative thoughts, it’s useful to understand their “nature.” On this page, I will briefly explain their characteristics to help you better understand them.
Negative thoughts often arise spontaneously
As mentioned before, the mind is full of thoughts at all times. In the swirl of thoughts, negative ones often appear without one having to think about them. That is, they can arise spontaneously.
Negative thoughts often happen in the background
When one thinks, there are many thoughts that one is fully aware of. For example, hopefully, one is fully aware that one is reading this page. However, many thoughts occur in the background, with one being minimally aware of them. A typical example is driving a car while talking to a friend. The driving happens without one really thinking about it. Negative thoughts also often occur in the background, and unless one makes an effort, one may not recognise them.
Negative thoughts can pull your mood
If one doesn’t act on them, negative thoughts can “take control” and spiral one into unhappy states such as depression, anxiety, impulsive behaviour, etc. A key aim of Happy Thinking is to help one challenge and overcome negative thoughts, so they lose their power to undermine one’s happiness.
Negative thoughts often are not based on reality
Often, negative thoughts feel true but are not based on facts and do not actually represent reality. For example, one may feel that everyone in the office is bad when, in reality, only one or two people are. Or one has the thought that one is “useless” when reality is that while one may have faults, one also may have good qualities.
Negative thoughts can repeat themselves
Often, for a given individual, certain negative thoughts are more common than others and recur. After a while, one will be able to recognise ones that recur often.
“STOP” does not cure negative thoughts
Unfortunately, simply thinking or saying “STOP” often does not make negative thoughts disappear permanently. Happy Thinking will provide a more structured way to deal with negative thoughts.
Now that you have understood the basic characteristics of negative thoughts, you are well placed to understand how to challenge and overcome them.