Negative Thinking Patterns
and Wellness

Let's start by saying that negative thinking patterns and negative emotions are normal. If we want to be honest, most of us would have to admit to having negative thoughts and indulging in "stinking thinking" about ourselves, a situation, or others throughout the day.

Truth be told, our brains are wired to watch for danger. Part of the subconscious mind is attuned to the negative to keep us safe. This is very helpful when not overdone. It alerts you to potential danger and to those who would take advantage of you mentally and emotionally. Trust those instincts.

The problem is that since most of us are in little real danger on a daily basis, this part of our brain tends to create mountains out of molehills. Negative thoughts consume us about relatively minor things. Too much stress from chronic negativity compromises health.

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Negative Thinking Patterns

A young child's brain often functions at the theta wave level which makes it easy for programming from authority figures to take place. They teach us the "facts" about ourselves, others and life. This information, or misinformation, forms the basis of our thinking until we change them.

A traumatic experience can cause an instant and lasting imprint at any age. These imprints stay with us and influence us throughout life unless we reprogram the subconscious mind.

Sometimes our thoughts get stuck in negative thinking patterns that seem impossible to shut off. They keep us awake at night,or cause us to make decisions that limit rather than expand and empower us. We focus on the pains instead of the pleasures of life. We look at a circumstance, individual, or life in general through a dark filter instead of rosy colored sunglasses.

Worse yet, as we continue to stay in this negative or hyper-vigilant state, we keep our bodies in a state of constant stress, which is damaging to our mental and physical health.

Law of attraction fans may worry even more because they understand that "as a man thinks, so he is". What you focus your energy on is what you attract more of, especially when it's paired with emotion. So if you are engrossed in a habitual negative thought pattern fueled by its accompanying negative emotion, you find yourself in a vicious mental/emotional cycle.

Brain science bears this process out. The brain creates neural pathways according to your thoughts. These pathways are strengthened and can even double in the span of an hour if you keep repeating it.

Now get this- in order to have enough building blocks for this pathway, it will disassemble one that isn't being used. So if you're focused on anger day after day, you may notice your ability to have loving thoughts diminishing. And it really is.

Identify Your Negative Thinking Patterns

Here are some common patterns. You may find that you project these onto yourself or others.

You focus on the negative in reality or possibility.

No matter how many good things happened or may happen, you discount the positive and rehash or worry about the possible negatives.

I used to have the very negative habit of rehashing a "stupid" comment I made, torturing myself with it endlessly. It didn't matter that no one else thought anything of it or everything else I said was brilliant.

You generalize instead of looking at each situation or circumstance accurately.

Something "always" goes wrong or good things "never" happen for you. This is rarely the truth.

You project the negative into the future.

This negative thinking pattern is a natural follow through of the generalization pattern. "I'm a failure and will always be a failure." These thoughts are a sure way to rob yourself of hope and happiness. The future is a clean slate and an open book. You get to choose what is written in it.

You make the problem about you.

You take responsibility for how someone else is feeling or for things that go wrong that really have little or nothing to do with you. We used to have a moody work partner who would go through periods of not talking. The rest of us would whisper, "I wonder if she's mad at us? What did we do?"

You believe you don't deserve good things.

You aren't worth it. You're no good. Good things happen to other people, not you. You're sick because you were "bad" and don't deserve to be well.

She/I/You should,ought to, must, better, need to...

Why is this negative? It sets up expectations that may be unrealistic or undesirable. It's controlling and inflexible. It closes the door to expansion and possibilities. Do you really have to (fill in the blank)or are there other possibilities?

You believe your negative thoughts and/or confuse a negative emotion as a fact.

Two popular sayings are "Don't believe everything you think" and "there's three sides to every story, yours, mine and the truth."

And just because you feel something doesn't make it so. Remember when that article came out about all those beautiful models who felt fat or ugly because one of their features wasn't "perfect"?

You blame everyone or anyone else for your problems.

It's always someone else's fault that something "bad" happened to you. You accept no responsibility for your health or life circumstances.

Sidestepping the arguments of group co-creation and karma we can acknowledge that sometimes bad things happen to us that we have no direct control over. A great worker loses his job because of downsizing. A girl gets kidnapped on her way home from school.

But if we are honest with ourselves we have to acknowledge that we have, at least in part, contributed to much of what we blame others for.

It's easy to get discouraged when noticing how many negative thinking patterns we have. The point is not to get even more negative. Negative thinking has several positive aspects.

Awareness of your negative thoughts and stinking thinking habits is an important step to developing a positive mental attitude and feel better about yourself and others.

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