If you thoughts are mostly negative (me) thoughts then you're obviously pessimistic. Duh, right? Well the opposite is true. Positive thoughts = optimistic. We know that however, especially for me, it's hard to make a change or feel like you can make a change. (I hate Utah).
Benefits of optimism: resistance to illness, reduced risk of coronary artery disease, more productive in work and school, and better bonds in relationships.
That's nice right? Well, I guess the other benefit is it lowers stress, hence we're in week two of stress relief.
First we identified misconceptions in thinking - filtering: filter positive, focus on negative; personalizing: blame yourself when anything bad happens; catastrophizing: anticipate the worst; polarizing: good/bad, black/white, or perfect/failure.
Then we figure out what you say to yourself and how often. Take a look at your thoughts throughout the day and lay out what you find. Change it.
Exercise:
Write down the most common negative thoughts that you tell yourself.
Choose at least one of the above to write a positive statement to counter it.
Take time, just work slowly and overtime you can overcome your negative thoughts.
Resource: Robert Holden, PhD; Happiness Project
No comments:
Post a Comment