Get out of the negative spiral
4 tips for a healthy mindset and positive thoughts
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Many of us are familiar with negative thought spirals and know that sometimes it is not so easy to get out of it. We have five tips that you can use to work on your mindset and face life more calmly.
For some it is the current events surrounding the never-ending pandemic and the war, for others it is very personal issues that dominate their thoughts and make it very difficult for them to stay positive and look to the future with optimism.
Even if you can’t imagine it right now, you can practice thinking positively. With a few tips, you can work on your mindset and, even in difficult times, manage not to get lost in negative thought spirals. (Of course, this does not apply to people with mental illnesses, such as depression. In this case, you should talk to your doctor about treatment methods that are right for you.)
4 tips to think positively and cultivate a healthy mindset
1. Identify the negative thoughts you want to change
Before we can change anything, we have to be really aware of it. So listen carefully to what your negative thoughts are trying to tell you. Does your inner critic constantly belittle you? Are you replaying difficult situations from the past over and over again in your mind? Or do you always assume the worst and already see negative scenarios in the future that have not yet happened (and probably won’t)?
It may help you to write down such thoughts as they pop up. This way you can see even more clearly how often you are actually making things unnecessarily difficult for yourself.
2. Accept these thoughts as they are
The next important point: the radical acceptance of the current state – and thus your thoughts. We often want to get rid of negative things directly and just try to push them away. Unfortunately that doesn’t work. Instead, we must first accept and fully accept failures, negative feelings as well as destructive thoughts.
You can practice this with meditation, for example. In classic mindfulness meditation, you do exactly that: accept everything as it is. You learn to no longer see your thoughts as the ultimate truth, but as something your mind produces based on what you feed it. And it’s ultimately up to you.
3. Change your perspective
Now try to change your perspective when you encounter a negative thought. Instead of thinking, “Shit, I totally messed up the presentation,” you could try, “The presentation didn’t go so well. But now I know what to pay attention to so I can do better next time do.”
This takes practice and is anything but easy. But if you keep working to see not only the negatives, but also the opportunities, you can train this kind of positive thinking like a muscle. Repetition is important – you have to make it a habit and keep reminding yourself not to fall into destructive thought patterns.
4. Practice gratitude
A very good way to practice positive thinking in concrete terms is gratitude. If you like, you can keep a gratitude journal in which you collect what you are thankful for every day. But maybe it’s enough to remind you of these aspects in the evening before you go to bed. Gratitude is especially important in difficult phases so as not to lose sight of everything we have.
This is understandably unhelpful for someone going through a serious life crisis, such as a war or a major loss. But if we’re generally fine, have a nice home, enough food, maybe a partner, healthy kids, pets, and a job, then focusing on those things instead of us can help a lot to focus on the negative things in the world or even in some area of our lives.
This is how you can cultivate a mindset of openness and positive thinking, in which negative thoughts can of course arise, but they don’t play the main role. It takes a bit of getting used to, but with a little practice, it helps a lot to ride the big and small waves of life.
Sources used: healthline.com, yogaeasy.de