Negative thinking, does it really represent a problem?

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Every day we usually have thousands of thoughts. Some of them allow us to see life from a simpler side, others may go unnoticed, however, there is a number of thoughts that tend to complicate our day to day and these are what we know as negative thoughts.

In some cases, negative thinking refers to a specific topic, however, in other aspects it is of generalities and for this type of thought, there are no exceptions of content and they are not temporary. They appear suddenly, do not warn and the circumstance that motivates their appearance is wide.

What is a thought?

Thought is a mental procedure that is carried out internally and, through them, we make some representation regarding someone else, ourselves or failing that, about the world. Thoughts have abstract, voluntary, involuntary or complex characteristics and their character is of relational origin.

A thought is differentiated by categories and the main ones are: memory, idea, fantasy and assumption. Now, if we couple to be very reductionist we differentiate them in images and words. Similarly, there are various types of thoughts classified in theoretical perspectives, however, this type does not contain characteristics in a negative thought since, the latter is supported by abstract aspects.

If for some reason you are still not clear about what a thought is, another way to know this meaning is through ourselves. We will close our eyes and during that time, we will notice everything that will recreate our mind. Maybe it focuses on something that happened to us in the morning hours, a plan that we have to do later or failing that, concentrates on what worries us.

Now, here the question is going to become: How do you do it? The answer is simpler than we think because, thought develops through words of the inner voice, through letters that are written on paper or through images. If for some reason the thought goes blank, we should not worry because, at some point, a memory will appear in our mind.

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A very curious aspect that cannot be overemphasized is that the mind has a percentage considered to have a negative tendency. This situation is totally normal, above all, when the main objective since humanity exists, is to keep us free of dangers; this means that it automatically seeks to develop our survival. In view of this, the mind is automatically specialized to look for the danger and does so when tracking our environment to anticipate or discover threats.

Due to the above, we should not be surprised to have many doubts, fear and various concerns. At this point, it is essential to eliminate the thought that this is a sign of weakness because it is not and does not imply that our mind is malfunctioning. Quite simply, it is a totally natural consequence of evolution.

For this reason, although we always listen to the expression that says: "Think positive!" and, we immediately want to put it into practice; there is no need to be so naïve because, the negative thought will not disappear. This can be modified, softened and make it lose prominence, however, it will always exist in our mind.

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Our mind has a double face

As we have been noticing, the mind practically has two faces: on the one hand it is very luminous and on the other, it is totally dark. It should be noted that, this situation does not mean the surprise factor is still present in it since, with total freedom it helps us to learn, plan, analyze, organize, communicate, create, adapt in various environments and also allows us to create. It is so variable and at the same time, it expands the possibility that it gives us that it will never cease to be amazing.

Now, beyond all that luminous side that it possesses, we cannot leave aside its dark focus. In this the criticism, concern, fear, design of horrible stories develops and we also learn to judge ourselves very harshly. The mind is able to lead us to the unpleasant comparison with other people, it immerses us very easily in painful memories and when it proposes it, it drills us the mistakes we made in the past.

We are not our thoughts

After knowing the functioning of thought, it is essential to be clear that erroneous beliefs will always exist in us and more if the focus is on negative thoughts. An example of these can be:

• Negative thinking is so harmful that sooner or later it will come true: This is far from being so and to reduce this belief, we must only understand that it is not true, the negative that we are thinking, only exists in the mind.

• If I am a negative person or relate to someone like that, I will become problematic because I will let the action control me: At this point we have to reflect for a moment in some situation that happened to us and we get to feel a lot of anger towards someone, when we are reflecting, we will notice what thoughts arose from our mind and thus, we will be able to analyze if only the negative is conflictive.

Contextualized these two examples we can notice that, negative thinking is not a problem, however, so that it does not become one, it is essential that we do not stay anchored to it because if it catches us, there if it becomes a very unpleasant problem since, our attention will be focused on the conflict and without realizing it, the problems will end up having control in the situation or over us.

Now, for this to happen in this way, there is a fusion between the person, sanity and the mind since, all our thoughts begin to process each information that the mind receives from a very negative aspect and although it is difficult for us to recognize it, only we gave it the authorization to process a situation in that way.

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What can be done so that a negative thought does not become a problem?

In the first instance, we must distance ourselves from any negative thought or belief and to achieve this, it is essential to distance ourselves from them. There is no need to assume that we are losers or something we will do is going to go wrong. Nor can we repeat the negative judgments we have about ourselves because this action will have an impact on the loss of self-esteem.

Learning to thank our mind when it processes something correctly, is an excellent habit and at the same time, we reward the good discipline it has with us. The idea should always be to help us not to identify with negative thinking.

To conclude, the most important technique we can do to distance ourselves from negative thinking is to observe our thoughts and instead of dedicating ourselves to looking at the world starting from them, we must assume that everything is in our mind and reality is far from being what happens in the abstract world of thought.