Negative thinking is a vehicle for a boatload of stress. how to have a positive mindset? Being a pessimist – someone who has a tendency for negative thinking – is the top cause of mental stress for most people.

how to have a positive mindset?

There are some scientists that subscribe to the belief that human beings have a natural bent toward negative thinking. Their reason? Thousands of years ago our ancestors had to think negatively in order to overcome scarce and hostile environments.

Pessimism is still prevalent in our society. It is a remnant from our evolutionary past that we hang onto, even though our society has moved far beyond living as hunter-gatherers.

How to adjust your thinking patterns in order to focus more on the positive?

Correct Common Negative Thought Patterns

Because we are still held captive by our pessimistic past, our minds are naturally inclined to negative thoughts and ideas. Be aware of these negative trends when they come up, so you can grab hold of them before they take root and cause more stress.

How to ditch the negative thinking?

Observable pessimistic thought patterns:

Unreasonable Generalizing – Someone who has a generalized way of negative thinking will always go to a place where he believes the world is unfair to him and that he gets the short end of the stick in every situation.

Of course, a lot of people are guilty of unreasonable generalizations. Every time you say things like “I’m always the one who is exhausted,” or “Everyone is an idiot,” you are putting forth an unreasonable generalization.

Crazy Conclusions – A crazy conclusion comes about when a person surmises a negative outcome before they have studied all of the details of a situation.

An example of this is found in the office worker that is convinced he’s going to get fired and replaced in a month because of a small mistake he made that his project leader was aware of.

Unfair Self-Evaluation – When you grab hold of small detail in your current situation and use it to assume a negative outcome for yourself that is called unfair self-evaluation. Take the example of the high school student taking a college entrance exam.

He might tell himself that he’s no good at studying and that no university would want to let him in. This unfair self-evaluation is coming from this student’s own insecurities, it’s not coming from facts. It’s negative and unrealistic, and it’s based on emotional thinking.

Fearing the Future – Fearing the future is a common thought pattern seen in those with largely negative mindsets.

They will say things like, “I think I’m going to really screw up my job interview. I’m going to forget everything I’ve prepared and I’m going to walk out without the job.”

When someone allows themselves to think like this or to live in this way of thinking, it can easily diminish their energy.

Hold an Internal Dialogue with Yourself

If you frequently suffer from anxiety, worry, and negative thinking, try holding an internal dialogue with yourself. This internal dialogue will stop your mind from proceeding further into negative thinking and dismantle any destructive thoughts that you might be experiencing.

Use the following statements below to dissipate any negative notions you might experience when negative thinking starts in:

“Am I preparing to respond to the problem or am I just simply reacting to the situation?”

“Do I actually have proof that something horrible is coming or are these things in my head?”

“Have I had wrong assumptions about this type of situation in the past and am I repeating those wrong assumptions this time too?”

“Just because I had a similar experience when I was younger, can I say for certain that this catastrophe will happen again?”

“Am I feeling sorry for myself? Am I being reasonable for feeling sorry for myself just because one person didn’t like what I had to offer?”

“Am I being rational and realistic, or am I letting my imagination run away with me?”

“Some degree of risk is completely natural. It doesn’t mean that something bad is going to happen to me.”

“Stop pondering about the worst thing that could happen!”

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Laugh Whenever You Can – When a person experiences laughter, his entire body relaxes and his brain sends out the signal for the experience of pleasure and happiness. So as you can imagine, laughter is hugely effective in stressful situations. You can’t laugh randomly in every situation just because you have a desire to. However, you should be able to laugh in the face of negative thinking and to promote physical relaxation for you.