Fighting Off Negative Thoughts

Starting off the New Year learning how to control negative thoughts without letting them consume you.

As an anxious or depressed person, you’re not stranger to negative or intrusive thoughts. Even if you have the best intentions of having a good day you can find yourself getting hit with worries and fears that lead you spiraling into paralysis. It’s not fun, it’s debilitating and highly unpleasant.

For me personally, I’ve been experiencing this a lot in the time period between Christmas and the new year. I was feeling down the the holidays were over then completely fearful of what a new year would bring. Of all the uncertainty, I myself am personally expediting with school being over and me looking for a job in a new field. Instead of what could go right, I’ve been obsessing over how afraid I am of change. And can’t seem to shake this looming feeling of something bad going to happen. Or worse, manifesting it.

Luckily for me, this isn’t chronic and it happens every so often. When it happens I’m lucky enough to realize that I have awareness of these kinds of thoughts. Instead of being hard on myself for it, I let my brain do its thing and flow with the discomfort and unpleasantness.

I like to focus on gratitude to interrupt the anxiety. I definitely can’t go without meditation when my thoughts are all over the place. Pro tip: meditating to ocean wave sounds is incredibly relaxing. And I also like to notice things around me in the room I’m in. Because when I’m spiraling, it’s often because I’m obsessing over something that happened in the past or I’m fearing something in the future. The brain is just begging to get back to the present from all that time travel!

Learning to realize the difference between negative thoughts and regular thoughts is tricky because it sounds and feels the same in your head. So learning your physical cues of when you’re feeling bad will really help give you insight on this because regular thoughts won’t cause your heart to face or stomach to cramp or cause sweating. Just a few examples of how my anxiety physically manifests. Also, pay attention to what you've been eating, as diet plays a very important role in positive mental health.

The point is, it takes practice to be aware and practice to control these kinds of thoughts but it certainly isn’t impossible. Please enjoy this video I made about fighting off negative thoughts and make sure you read the caption there too for some extra motivation.

If you’re like me and struggling with thoughts that are more on the fearful and negative side, I’m sending my love to you and hope that these thoughts pass through you quickly without consuming you. You’re a badass for everything you’ve overcome and this will be no different!