You have probably heard about the importance of thinking positively a thousand times before you have even reached your twenties. The notion of positive thinking has turned into the mainstream idea that flooded Instagram and Facebook with motivational posts and quotations. However, how does it help us? Or, most importantly, what are the dangers of having negative thoughts instead? Is negative thinking really that bad? Can it impact our lives? Let’s learn how negative thoughts affect our lives and what we can do about it.
Poor emotional resilience
Overall, we need to teach ourselves to aim higher and believe in the best. Yes, it sounds like any motivational poster you can come across online. Yet, there is truth to those statements. By teaching ourselves to think positively, we get to build emotional resilience. We need it to combat life hardships and challenges along the way. Emotional resilience helps us to flourish even in the most stressful and challenging situations. Why? Because we don’t let those negative things and thoughts get to us.
However, people who tend to have frequent negative thoughts are more likely to fall under pressure. Thus, people who expect bad are more likely to accept it instead of fighting it. As a result, the lack of emotional resilience can lead to poor crisis management and long-lasting mental health effects, such as insomnia, depression, and anxiety.
Dominant pessimistic view of life
Lack of optimism is yet another consequence of having a toxic mindset. Not seeing the light during challenging times can instantly lead to bad mood swings and depression. Therefore, people need to learn how to cope with challenges and stress. Otherwise, those negative factors will start to take control over your life. Moreover, a pessimistic look at life will take away even the good things in your life. As once you learn to view life negatively, it gets harder to notice and appreciate positive things.
Troubles with self-esteem
Negative thinking can have an impact on not only how you view the world but yourself as well. Having a negative take on life will impact the way you look at yourself in this world. Hence, such a tendency may soon result in self-esteem issues. On average, negative thinkers tend to be more critical about themselves than necessary. Such self-criticism often affects how people talk to themselves and what value they see in their professional or personal lives. Overall, negative thinking is one of the dominant reasons for low self-esteem in people.
How to start thinking positively
Once you know about the dangers of negative thinking, you may think about changing this habit of yours. Starting to think positively can change your life. However, you do need to work for such a shift. Fortunately, you can start by taking really simple and small steps to develop a positive mindset. Here are our top three solutions.
Don’t hold your feelings in
Having someone to talk to is essential. We should never bottle up our feelings under any circumstances, especially the negative ones. The thing is, bad thoughts will not go anywhere unless you release them. Instead, they will grow stronger and more vicious inside you. Hence, find ways to release all toxic thoughts and feelings once you have them. Otherwise, they will poison everything else in your life, starting with your mind.
Be grateful
Being grateful for what you have takes effort. So often, people tend to focus solely on one bad aspect of their lives, even when they have plenty of things to be thankful for in life. So, start tracking down things you can appreciate. Mention all your daily blessings. Writing about all the good you have in life will soon make you appreciate those things even more. Thus, you won’t even notice how soon you’ll start looking at life with greater gratitude.
Take care of your sleep and diet
Half of our mental health issues can come from poor diet and bad sleeping habits. Taking care of these two factors can result in a better mood and a positive take on the world. Hence, try to come up with a schedule and stick to it. Going to bed and waking up at specific hours every day will already help a whole lot. Next, research healthy diet ideas online and integrate more healthy food options into your meals. You can even order essay online on this topic to approach it with all seriousness.
Final thoughts
As you can see, pessimistic thinking is not a habit to keep. The way we think and talk to ourselves matters a lot. This is how we get to form a vision of ourselves and the world around us. Thus, it can be as bad or as good as we make it to be. However, transforming negative into positive thoughts can take some effort and time. Yet, with the right motivation and mindset, you should grow stronger and more optimistic about life.
