As humans, we all are controlled by our feelings – good or bad. They are the key drivers for our every action. If you have a lot of negative thoughts about yourself that gives you anxiety from time to time, then this can turn you into a hateful and toxic person.
However, we all have tried ignoring those thoughts, and by responding it with a straight positive answer as if they that’s what your negativity wanted all along. It doesn’t really work that way.
So the question is, “how does one get rid of this negativity?”
It’s not easy but it’s not impossible either. It’s a never-ending cycle that you have to start breaking. So recently I started searching a lot on how I can become a positive person that everyone talks about and I found this one way:
GIVE A NAME TO YOUR NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
It’s a bit of strange advice but it helps up to an extent. You can assume your negative thoughts as a person who is constantly degrading you. You know the kind of friend we all had back in high school? Every time you get a negative thought, you answer it back with your positivity with its name. Imagine aap apnay buray khayalaat ko shakeela keh kar baat karhey hai. Phir tou ussai aesay hi chaley jana hai.
For instance, if you decide to eat a pizza and then your negative thoughts come back reminding you “omg, you’re so fat”, “kabhi sahi nahi hosakogi”, “no one will like you” so you can simply shut it up by asking it “go away, shakeela”.
Or you might come across an Instagram profile of a friend of yours who has a feed worth dying for and your toxic friend (thoughts), Shakeela comes back reminding you how you can never be like her and she continuously compares you that person.
To make it simpler, we all have to face our negative thoughts if we really want it to go away so why not just talk to it like it’s your toxic friend that you are trying to get rid of? But then we can never get rid of our friends, do we? We try to fix them. What if your negative thoughts just wanted to be acknowledged? They were there inside you because of a bad situation or trauma that you went through. You need to get to the core of the problem.
You need to know why your friend Shakeela is the way she is.
So yes, facing your negative thoughts is worth it.
Acknowledge it as a real person who has real problems and soon, you will find yourself finally breaking the cycle as you make peace with your childhood friend.
