How to Break Out of Negative Thought Patterns

Research tells us we’re more depressed, anxious, and lonely than ever.

Why?

The fact that…

• Extreme poverty rates are declining.
• World hunger is decreasing.
• People in developed countries have more leisure time.
• Cities are trying to become more sustainable.
• Technology is solving many of our problems.
• Life expectancy is rising.
• Child mortality is down.

Should I continue?

There are many more. Our continued societal innovations are solving many of our world's problems. Yet, many of us remain in a depressive state, we are lost, and we feel lonely in a seemingly connected world.

The External World’s Effect on our Internal Mindset

With this continually innovating world we live in, it has reciprocated in kind an equally growing fast-paced environment.

We’ve taken the various time-saving opportunities provided to us by tech innovation and have tried to replace them with more and more tasks. All in the name of being productive! But for what?

Instead of taking the time to relax, we take the opportunity to do more. And then we present this always on the go version of ourselves online, so it spreads like wildfire. We’ve created a culture of guilt that makes us feel as though if we’re not doing something productive, we’re missing out. Or worse yet, society will see us as a failure.

This creates an environment where we’re perpetually stressed.

What does stress do? Well, we know it leads to anxiety and worse yet depressive episodes. But what do we see in our negative activity?

• We sleep less.
• We isolate ourselves from family and friends.
• We eat more junk food.
• We participate in escapism behavior (alcohol, Netflix, and many other options).
• We are less likely to exercise.

Typically, we keep doing the things we must do, such as going to work in order to pay the bills. But that place of work might be the exact environment perpetuating the problem, so we get stuck going through the motions. We get stuck in the loop of waking up, going to work, and coming home to enter an anxious episode where we feel we can’t escape!

We enter the negative spiral and then perpetuate the cycle.

We stop hanging out with friends after work, we stop calling our family, and we stop doing the things that bring us joy. This increasingly saddened state leads into a negative downward spiral that perpetuates the problem. Our sadness often leads us into the activity that makes us even sadder, which then amplifies those behaviors that keep us in those negative thought patterns.

Honestly, it’s crazy how easy it is for us to often do things that are not good for us.

Why do we do this? I struggle with it. But how many times have you eaten too much? Drank too much? How many times have you skipped the gym after you had made a plan to go? Went to bed too late? Or procrastinated on that project you knew the deadline of for weeks?

What can we do?

The first step is realizing what is happening. A method to do this can come in many forms, it could be simply reading this article right now (I hope it helps with that). We must understand how these negative thought patterns relate to our actions. Then, once we understand them, we can start creating actions that will create the behavioral changes we need.

Remember, stop worrying about what society wants from you, ask what you want for yourself.

Potential options to help in recognizing negative thought patterns…

1. Have daily negative thinking time where you commit to 10 minutes a day reviewing your negative thoughts. As you go through your day, write down your negative thoughts when they pop into your mind. Later in the day, review those thoughts. This way, over time, you will begin recognizing them coming and maintain better control over them.

2. Write instead of thinking. Writing down those negative thoughts is a method of “purging.” Our minds are better able to process our thoughts when we create a physical “symbolic” form for them.

3. Create an activity chart so you can monitor your own behavior. Try to at least fill in the major activities! Then from this, write down your mood on a scale of 1 through 10, and at the end of the week, you can evaluate your average mood. This will help you zero in on the behaviors that are leading to your negative mood patterns.

4. Now, try establishing new habits. I would recommend starting small! So waking up a bit earlier, planning a healthy lunch, reading for 20 minutes before bed, and gradually integrate these in while charting them into your mood chart. By seeing how these small habits are creating more positive thought patterns, we are more apt to maintain them.

Then you will see that you have created a positive mood spiral upward!

These techniques mentioned will help zap you out of those negative thought patterns and negative action patterns. I present these activities with the goal in mind of making you more engaged with your life.

This engagement creates an environment for your mind to be constantly evaluating and being aware of your emotional state. The awareness of your state leads to a better understanding of it, where you can then become more apt to choose actions that help maintain a healthy, happy, and at peace state of mind.