What is Negative Thinking?
Everybody can be prone to negative thinking at times.
Even the most happiest of us can sometimes let circumstances lead to negative thoughts that something bad might happen or we will be made to feel uncomfortable, even when we know we don’t have any solid proof to be so certain that things will go wrong.
If negative thinking is given the slightest opportunity it can move quickly from being a fleeting thought to feel overwhelming and uncontrollable.
Styles of Negative Thinking
Negative thinking comes in a wide range of styles:
- Filtering
- All or nothing thoughts
- Unhelpful generalisations, which can lead to jumping to negative conclusions based on past events
- Emotional reasoning
- Blame
- Labelling where we use generalised and often negative words towards ourselves or other people
- Laying down rules for ourselves or other people that don’t adequately account for practicalities or circumstances
What is Happiness?
Some of us may decide that we need something, such as more money or a nice relaxing holiday will help us kick negative thinking and be a happier person, but there is a wide array of research that indicates that more things have an astonishingly small impact on how happy we think we are.
But What exactly is Happiness?
Happiness is always going to be a subjective concept, but one thing most researchers can agree on is that it works on a continuum, not something that is either/or.
According to positive psychology researcher, Sonia Lyubomirsky, happiness is ‘joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile’ while others define happiness as ‘subjective wellbeing’ – if you think you are happy, then you are.
Factors that can Affect Happiness and Lead to Negative Thinking
Scientific research demonstrates that only 10% of the variations in happiness are influenced by external circumstances.
Our genetic makeup accounts for 50% of happiness variations and 40% comes from the choices and actions we make every day, meaning that we can control a large amount of happiness factors.
How to Maximise your Hypnotherapy Program to Maximise Happiness and Kick Negative Thinking
With a little bit of effort, alongside the benefits of hypnotherapy, you can use the following tips to control your negative thinking and live a happy life.
- Find evidence that will prove that your negative thoughts are not realistic by comparing the worst possible outcome with what is most likely to happen.
- Add a more positive thought to your negative ones by adding the word ‘but’ in the middle.
- Notice when good things happen and spend time at the end of each day to think of something positive that happened.
- Make the time to relax and do something that you love every week.
- Talk to someone you feel comfortable with, either a trusted friend, family member or a professional, which I would be happy to help you with.
- Remembering times you felt awe and wonder
- Imaging your best positive self
- Mental subtraction of positive eventsMeaningful photographs and journaling\
- Giving up grudges
- Practicing kindness
- Living in the moment
If you find that you are still struggling, hypnotherapy can be helpful for many people. Please contact me and ask for information on how I can help. My number is 01977 678593.