Negative thoughts often follow us, as frequently as we wish. Is it a natural phenomenon or a forced one? Or may be a chosen one? Either ways, it is dangerous. Each of us battle with negative thoughts and for reasons well known to us. Is it truly the be all and end all or can we fare better as humans?

Mind is a powerful tool which has the impeccable ability to change the course of our lives and therefore profoundly impact the quality of our thoughts, ideas, and decisions. It is funny how a mind can be the hardest pupil to train - to stay focussed, determined, and nonchalant amidst so much chaos surrounding us. However, it is also a child’s play once the mind is inspired and moulded to believe in the limitless possibilities within ourselves. Mind comprehends habits surprisingly well. Constant inputs serve the mind with a beautiful memory to perceive what we see, hear, feel, experience in the way we desire.

It is no astonishment that negative thoughts come up in most of our minds at the drop of a hat. Rejections and failures cause us to become helpless victims of a weak, pessimistic mind.

 We get embroiled in a vicious cycle where we succumb to sad past experiences and fear to think beyond the obvious. What is even worse is, we struggle with odious comparisons with our colleagues, friends, extended family, neighbours and eventually forget to focus on ourselves.  Unintentionally, we are driven to replace self –esteem with the useless need of approvals and validations from an outside force.  We fail to understand that everybody has his or her own story and paths of thorns that they have had to tread but find a weird sort of comfort giving away excuses to change. To change in the way we think, we behave, we work and we live, is the need of the hour. When change ceases to happen, negativity develops.

One must make peace with the past. It is hard but it is inevitable to take complete charge of both the past and the present. Whilst the past cannot sometimes be buried for good, it can, with sincere efforts and strong inclination to grow, be used for good. Regular doses of introspection aid in escaping from the mad concept of harmfully relating ourselves to others. Life lessons learned from past mistakes, conflicts, challenges are to be duly noted and remembered so as to derive the right takeaway for the present and a desired future. A sense of responsibility of our actions and consequences go a long way in shaping a confident “You”.Odious comaprisons with past and with others cannot be anything but healthy and productive.

Imagination knows no bounds. Our minds skilfully and artistically imagine events. It is only unfortunate how some of us fall prey to fear, anger, anxiety, depression because we are so ready to imagine all the wrong things that might happen to us and all the things that could go annoyingly wrong for us and "only for us". We hurriedly conclude even before anything really happens and thus become restless and distressed. Negativity in most cases is imagined way before it occurs in reality and hence makes its way into our lives like kith and kin.

How hard is it to shift from “sad” events to “positive outcomes “and “most-desired goals”? It would not hurt to be, firstly, aware of all the list of negative emotions refraining us from moving forward in life. One must never be hesitant in accepting the natural flow of our thought process. No matter how deeply disturbing they are. After all they are influencing us and engaging with us. It helps to even perhaps write them all down so we could read and re-read. Once the flow is clear, it is imperative to replace each one of them with positive results/emotions/response instead. One by one. Slowly yet steadily. Accepting that one is going through a low-phase and is in a not so positive space of life is in itself courageous. 

Humans are social animals. The crowds of people we attract and choose to be our factors of motivation have a great impact on our minds’ state.  Negativity is intense and stronger with promoters of negativity around us. The more such souls at easy reach, the more difficult it becomes to shut doubts and shed inhibitions. The idea is not to entertain people who please us constantly and let us know that life is a bed of lovely roses; nevertheless, the goal is to find people who give constructive criticism and make us believe in possibilities. People who show us that while bad can happen and unexpected turns are a natural part of life, yet push us to not acknowledge defeat as the ultimate result make a world of a difference to us.

Negativity can come as easily as we allow it to. It can sprout from within and from outside as much as we let it and can spread generously. The journey of awareness, right interpretations, and appropriate measures to have the right takeaways is the key to doing away with negativity albeit individuals combined with a driven circle of people can achieve results quickly and efficiently.

sindhura

I am a project manager by profession and a passionate trainer for Soft Skills, English Communication, NLP. I love travelling and have been to over 20 countries which has expanded my knowledge, enhanced my cultural competence and made me an independent and a stronger person. I especially enjoy teaching, counselling and mentoring; writing about people and experiences.

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