When pessimistic thoughts start flowing, it can be a struggle to be positive. With a few steps and tricks, we can conquer our negative thoughts by talking more positively to ourselves. Pretend you are the best friend you always wanted and treat yourself exactly how you would treat them. It sounds weird, but you need to be best friends with yourself before you can be best friends with anyone else.
1. Become Aware Of The Negative Talk: To start, we have to be more aware of the thoughts that we keep having. When we are more conscious of our negative thinking, we start to realize just how often those thoughts can pop up. It might take some time to analyze this, but once we understand what triggers your pessimistic thoughts and why it will be much easier to fix the problem. Listening to ourselves is the first step before saying anything at all.
2. Replace Negative Thoughts With Positive Affirmations: Instead of harping on a bad thought, replace it with a positive affirmation. Positive affirmations are positive statements that are said with confidence and perceived truth. By saying them, we are addressing something negative in our lives in a healthy way by putting a positive spin on it. We have to fully believe the words that are coming out of our mouths and use phrases that we know will steer us to a better outlook. Don’t just say, “I am a good person,” but say things like: “I am caring and thoughtful and I love myself.” When you get more specific, it will help you see the picture much more clearly.
3. Get Rid Of Outside Influences: It’s hard to get rid of the negative voices inside our heads when we are surrounded by people who are pessimistic. Sometimes we don’t even notice the negative until someone brings it up and our positive outlook on things starts to crumble down. People who are verbally negative all the time are most likely internally negative, too.
4. Focus On The Present: When we focus on the here and now, we will have a better chance of not being negative about ourselves because we are not thinking about past mistakes. By constantly thinking about these, we are allowing ourselves to beat ourselves up. Let the past be in the past; embrace our mistakes and look forward to our future instead.
5. Treat Yourself Like You Would A Friend: Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. It’s really sad how destructive we can be to ourselves when we would never dare say half those thoughts out loud or to our own friends. Every time we start feeling like we are talking down to ourselves, try to think about if we would say those things to our friends. If the answer is no, then we need to stop what we are thinking and change it to something more positive.
Don’t let the brain trick you. Whether you believe it or not, you have control over your thinking and if you want, you can start to feel more powerful about yourself sooner than you would imagine. Positive thinking equals confidence, and you deserve all of that.