There are so many times we realise that we are carrying tonnes of negative thoughts like past bitter experiences, some derogatory comments from others, broken relationships, quarrels, insults, failures and many more. Currently, a common negative thought of the whole world is fear of getting Covid-19.Thoughts are really based on your feelings and emotions which immediately or gradually reflects in your actions too. It is a fact that the human mind has a tendency to catch up negative feelings/ experiences more than positive. Because negative emotions tell us that something is wrong, so we are likely to spend more attention ,time and energy processing these feelings. According to an article in 2005 by the National Science Foundation, an average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those,80% are negative thoughts and 95% are exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the day before. In fact, a human being has the capacity to change/control the thoughts, emotions and feelings. It doesn’t mean that you should hide your negative feelings. If you do so, they will burst out more fiercely than before. How we express the feelings depends upon the context. For example if you’re dear friend or some very close to you passed away. Is it possible to think positively? That is hard. Sometimes you may get angry, you may want to cry. Here you accept that all those negative thoughts that come to your mind are normal and give yourself the time to deal with it. At the same time, in some instances, people worry too much about what happened in their past, like betrayal from a closed one or a friend who deeply hurt or backstab you. Here what do you have to realise is holding a grudge or pain doesn’t do you any good. Instead of feeling negative about the incidence, the best thing you can do is figure out what you have learned from it, take it as an experience and apply the knowledge in similar situations.
In the journey of life we all experience these types of worries and negative thoughts. It really disturbs our mind and even sometimes we cannot focus on our day to day activities. Fortunately there are a lot of techniques to overcome it. According to experts, when negative thoughts come to your mind, you sternly tell yourself “stop” and force yourself to work which really needs concentration. Keeping your hands and mind busy helps you to stay away from worries up to some extent. Another technique is to write down worries in a paper. Many studies proved that writing down your worries in a paper and categorizing it is very effective. You can see that while categorizing, 6 or 8 small worries turn to 3 or 4.When you do so it will reduce your stress and even helps to find solutions for the same. Furthermore it is advisable to schedule a time to think about your worries like 15 or 30 minutes a day which helps you to free up your cluttered mind. Some studies proved that it takes two weeks for most people to find relief using this method. Moreover it helps to reduce anxiety and provide good sleep. Apart from this you can meditate, engage in an interesting conversation with someone, minimize the usage of social media/internet, practice positive affirmations which all help a lot to cleanse your thoughts on a daily basis. This year we’ve all had difficult times due to Covid-19 and we are unfortunately up to the brim with a lot of negative emotions. So it is necessary to gauge your thoughts and cleanse it if needed on a daily basis.
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