Negativity & Anxiety

Let’s talk about how negative thoughts can be controlled instead of them controlling you.

We can’t stop all the thoughts that come and go everyday, but we can control the harmful ones.

Yes, we can take back our lives as we give ourselves permission to fight back.

As those anxious thoughts begin to surface the first thing we need to do is identify and challenge those negative (or anxious) thoughts.

It’s important to challenge the negative thoughts when they first appear, that’s when they are weakest.

We need to set up boundaries about what we allow in our heads.

Being able to handle anxiety means finding ways to deal with the anxiety, meaning, we don’t have to hide from every anxiety inducing experience.

It’s ok for you to say, “I just can’t hear the airplane horror story (you’re telling) right now because I have a flight to catch and I don’t need to entertain the thoughts of airplanes crashing to the ground.”

Maybe you NEED to catch that flight, but you don’t NEED to fill your head with scary airplane thoughts beforehand.

There’s the difference.

We don’t have to give up the dentist / riding in elevators / getting on airplanes / our self worth or the job interview. We only have to fight back and defy thoughts that create excessive unnecessary negative or anxious thoughts about those things.

Set boundaries for what we allow ourselves to be influenced by.

One of the reasons we avoid the news and much of social is because of all the negativity.

Others may think we are sticking our heads in the sand but by watching horrible events that we have no control over, we aren’t staying informed, we are inviting depression, anxiety and fear.

As that suffering festers we become angry, pessimistic and frustrated, because we can do nothing to make a difference. 

As we sit and watch the news showing the same horror over and over, It makes us feel powerless and helpless. 

Get Around Positive People

Do you want to catch a cold? Get around people with a cold. A lot of people associating with positive minded or negative people are influenced by that energy.

There’s been neuro research that shows listening to negative people complain for a period of time affects your brain cells. So, stay away from the negativity. Even listening to negative people on the media can harm your thought process.

Focusing on negativity in life makes you feel depressed. When you’re listening to a negative person rambling on and on about the horrors of their life, you’re essentially focusing on it., you are buying that experience.

This is a real probability that could cause you to feel depressed about the negativity in your life.

Maintaining emotional detachment is important for keeping stress and anxiety at a distance.  Not allowing negative people (or anyone for that matter) to smother you with the horrors of their life  is vital to your emotional health and happiness.  It all comes down to how you value yourself, and thus believe in yourself.

People who manage their lives effectively are generally those who work internally, those who know that success and inner peace comes from within Negative people generally work externally. They blame others or outside events for everything that does or doesn’t happen in their lives.

Paganism is about self empowerment, it's reconnecting with nature so we can reconnect with ourselves.

You can't do any of that glued to the bombardment of the media or negative people, that includes the social media as well.

“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.”
Swedish Proverb

You know how it starts.

It begins with a nagging thought.

That creates more nagging thoughts.

And suddenly your mind is filled with such negativity you've lost control of everything else.

When you notice that negative thoughts or images are starting to enter your mind, try actually say “stop!” to yourself. If you’re alone, you can try saying this out loud, but it can also be very effective when just said in your head.

There are also some more direct approaches to thought stopping. For example, you can try the old tactic of splashing your face with water or just change the direction of your thinking. Some people like to count backward from 100 to 1.

Practice becoming aware of when these thoughts come up. Are you tired, hungry, disappointed, stressed or upset? When we try to ignore negative thoughts, they don’t go away, they continue to pop up. To counteract them, recognize them. Say to yourself, “I’m recognizing a negative thought; it’s not welcome here, leave me now.” This ends negativity pretty quickly.

In our more rational moments we realize that the most of things we worry about just won’t happen, but if they do, we deal with them head on.