Your environment and upbringing can condition you to think negatively about yourself, which takes its toll on your feelings, outlook, and overall mental health. Fortunately, you can disrupt this by identifying negative thoughts before they lead to a feeling or behavior. However, before you jump the gun, at least hear your thoughts out before invalidating them, because that would actually be a bit narrow minded of you. Here’s how to catch a negative thought and give it at least some consideration:
Self-Put Down
Putting yourself down by describing yourself with negative traits is one of the most common ways to think negatively. These thoughts are often distilled down to the phrases ‘I’m a bad person’ or ‘I’m not deserving’ or ‘I’m the dumbest person in this corn maze.’ Those thoughts aren’t always facts. But hey, remember that time in 2004 when you thought your flat ass looked good in Juicy Couture? Perhaps you raise a great point when you call yourself a dumb piece of shit!
Self-Blame
Blaming yourself for an event you have no responsibility for is a prime way to think poorly of yourself. You’re not bad luck to anyone who comes near you and you’re not the reason for your parent’s divorce. However, you might be the reason for the declining birth rate or an economic depression or the housing crisis, so take responsibility for yourself and give those self-blames some validity!
All-Or-Nothing
This binary way of thinking leads to extreme beliefs that are typically on the downside like ‘they hate me’ or ‘I’ll never be successful’ or ‘I’m so useless in this dentist’s chair’. This inability to see things in the grey area can render you unable to think of alternatives in a situation or solutions. Rather than accepting whatever thought you have about being unworthy or inadequate, really sit with it and dissect that thought. Just don’t be so judgy once you see the math is there that proves your all-or-nothing thought actually has a lot of credibility!
Catastrophizing
People who catastrophize envision the most disastrous outcome of an event, making it far more dire and severe than it actually is. This fear-forward way of distorting things seems irrational, but hey, not totally out of the realm of possibilities! You very well might fail this test, disappoint your partner, and be single and unqualified forever and have to settle for telemarketing or grave digging or being a DARE officer. You might be onto something!
Discounting the Positive
Rejecting good qualities or affirmations is not only blocking out any positive feelings, but it also further protects your negative self. Don’t be afraid to act like your own best friend and notice your good qualities and accomplishments! But then again, some things really don’t count that much and anyone can do the things you do, so if that’s what your brain is saying then, you know, listen hard.
Negative thoughts can affect you in ways you never even realized. But, then again, maybe for good reason! Give them a chance to be heard, especially if you consider yourself so “open minded”. Next time you jump to the conclusion that you’re having negative thoughts, maybe consider for a second that maybe you’re the wrong one! Also, it’s kind of rude of you to act like you’re better than your own thoughts. Like, you won’t even hear them out? Whatever, you’re ugly anyway, bitch!
