Almost everyone deals with negative thoughts and emotions. I still do at times, but not nearly as frequently as I used to do. I’ve learned a lot of life hacks from books like The Power of Now, The Power of Positive Thinking, and How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, as well as videos from Charisma on Command, that help me prevent or effectively manage negative thoughts and emotions. Here are some that I use on a daily basis.
- Do an eye scramble: this involves rolling your eyes around while you hum a short song. I don’t know why this works, but it helps me stop negative thoughts in their tracks and prevents me from being overtaken by them. Sometimes one is enough but other times I’ll have to do three to help center myself.
- Focus on your breath: when you strongly experience an emotion, your breath tends to become shallow and quick. If you catch yourself breathing this way, you can slow down your breath to help settle whatever emotion you’re feeling. This will give you better control over the thought and let you decide if it’s worth your time.
- Counter the negative with a positive: it can either be a general positive thought if you’re feeling negative but don’t know why or a specific positive though chosen because it’s the opposite of a specific negative thought. For example, if you’re beating yourself up over something you once did, you might try thinking “I am going to forgive myself and use the lesson I learned from making that mistake to avoid making it again.”
- Observe your surroundings: if you’re feeling negative and there’s no clear cause of those feelings, then say out loud to yourself that you are safe and not in physical danger. The fight-or-flight response is unnecessary in the absence of danger, so this may help reduce the negative feelings if they stem from safety concerns in your current situation.