Want To Move On? Slaughter Pesky Negative Thoughts - With Extreme Prejudice!

Sometimes, when life sucks and we feel stuck in a rut, it can be tempting to wallow in that misery. But what invariably happens is that we lock ourselves into a downward spiral of negativity because our thoughts take us down paths which are impossible to escape. Sure, these paths may seem logical at first but they're all an illusion — they exist only inside our heads!

This fact is important because not all thoughts are created equal; some are downright poisonous and must be eliminated post haste or you risk losing yourself in the abyss. But how do we deal with these thoughts when they seem so real in our mind?

This is where I think the concept of a thought record comes in. I believe that this tool can turn the tables on destructive thinking and give us a new way to deal with negative thoughts. The concept is actually very simple — all we have to do is write down our negative thought, any associated feelings and then challenge the evidence which feeds into the thought. This process should show us that the evidence which underpins our irrational beliefs is weak, flimsy or non-existent

To illustrate what I mean, let's take a simple example. Say that you feel miserable today because you've lost your job and can't find another one. This thought may seem to provide a good reason to feel depressed but on closer inspection, it would be absurd to feel so deeply despondent over losing a job which you'd been doing for the past six months.

How do you think this unemployed person would react when they started having negative thoughts like: "I've wasted six months of my life working for nothing! I deserve better!" Those sort of thoughts might make sense in the context of a job hunt but do you really think that this man or woman would feel as miserable and hopeless if they hadn't lost their job?

Well, unless we're in an absolutely desperate situation, we should all know how these people would respond. They'd probably say something like: "It's not the end of the world — I'm only unemployed for six months. I'll make the most of this time and really enjoy it!"

In this example, we can see that our negative thinking serves only to magnify the problem. The loss of a job is bad enough without adding extra weight to it. The simple act of writing down our negative thought and analysing it rationally shows us that there's no need to feel depressed.

Crucially, this process can be used to help us deal with pretty much any negative thought. Let me know if it helps you!

NB: If you liked this article, please help me out by upvoting or sharing it on social media :D  I'm currently sitting at the #1 spot for "best personal development" on Steemit and I'd like to keep my rank! Thanks!

posted by Paul Morris at 09:25   1 comments Links to this post

The Six Month Rule - A Radical Approach To Happiness, Success And Improving Your Life... And It Can Change Your Life Dramatically.

posted by Paul Morris at 11:45   1 comments Links to this post

You may have noticed that I've been writing lots of articles regarding happiness and life improvement recently. This is entirely intentional because I believe that these concepts are the key to success in all aspects of our lives. How could it be any other way? But unfortunately, many people say that true contentment can't be attained; some people even claim that the pursuit of happiness is pointless and ultimately futile.

This is complete nonsense but it's a very common idea that deserves to be challenged because we're currently living in a society where success and happiness are greatly encouraged. I'm not saying that all systems should encourage misery and unhappiness — far from it. But the ones which foster negativity and pessimism, for example, should be subject to close scrutiny because they're far more likely to produce negative outcomes than the ones which foster positivity...

I'm obviously talking about institutionalised advertising and marketing. The truth is that all advertising promotes happiness — it just doesn't tell you how or why... In other words, advertising is designed to make you feel happy and entertained so that you'll associate products and services with these feelings which make it much more likely that you'll buy them.

Sure, there are a few exceptions to this but they're just that — exceptions. For example, car advertisements use the idea of losing control over your own vehicle as an analogy for being in control of your life — but subconsciously, this is just the concept of driving on a high-octane rollercoaster which makes drivers feel euphoric…

If advertising really worked by changing our mindsets then we'd have to rethink how we define "success". To me, true success correlates with a high degree of wellbeing which is the result of a happy life which we've created for ourselves. This book review will explain why this is so...

posted by Paul Morris at 09:15   1 comments Links to this post

I often hear people saying something along the lines of: "If you think about happiness too much, you'll start to lose sight of what really important things in life and create a negative spiral of unhappiness." Now, I don't think that's true and it makes for an interesting argument so let's look at why.

Simply put, the only reason we can have for being unhappy is that we've been told to expect it. We've been conditioned from birth to think negatively and we've no choice but to accept this viewpoint because in our culture, these thoughts are perfectly normal. We're meant to have a pessimistic view of life because it's the only way we'll be able to survive an uncaring, hostile world — at least, that's what our parents tell us!

The problem is that this idea makes no sense whatsoever; if we're all supposed to be so miserable then why do all of our friends seem so happy? Why do we want to feel good about ourselves and each other and what we do? Wouldn't it make more sense for people to work together if they all had a negative outlook on life? We'd probably think and act in ways which were most likely to get us killed, after all!

But of course, this isn't how humans work.

Conclusion

If someone is miserable, they're going to become more miserable. The way we live our lives doesn't need to be based on a negative mindset but rather, on a positive one. Just because we think that happiness is hard to come by doesn't mean that it isn't attainable and even if you don't possess the perfect life, there's no reason why it should feel like a hellish trap.

At the end of the day, I believe that we should all make happiness a priority — at least something near the top of our lives which shouldn't be overlooked in favour of trivial pursuits like money or career advancement.