Stopping Negative Thought Cycles
One of the most difficult challenges when it comes to our mental health is dealing with intrusive thoughts. The bad news is you can’t actually stop intrusive or negative thoughts. Thoughts that automatically pop into our heads are not under our control. However, the good news is that you can choose how you respond to these thoughts and can stop them from affecting your mood and behavior.
Intrusive thoughts are a normal part of our brain’s functioning and are not necessarily reflective of who we are or what we value. Problematic thinking comes into play when we judge our thoughts or try to derive meaning from them. For example, if you have an automatic thought pop into your head that is a negative evaluation of how someone is dressed, this may cause you to experience a brief feeling of disgust towards the person you are evaluating. It is healthy to acknowledge this thought as well as the feeling of disgust that goes along with it and to move forward with your day. It is unhealthy to take this thought and evaluate it further to assign meaning or judgment to it. Engaging with your thoughts in this way can cause negative thought cycles, which are challenging to get out of.
Why is it important to avoid assigning meaning or judgment to our thoughts? Assigning additional meaning and judgment to automatic thoughts creates negative feelings which may not have been present during the initial presentation of the original thought. For example, if you label yourself as a bad person for having an automatic negative thought about someone’s appearance, this can lead to further negative emotions outside of the initial emotion that may have come with the original thought. These additional negative emotions, in turn, may cause you to behave a certain way in response to the new emotions you are experiencing as a result of expanding upon the original thought. In the above example, if you feel shame because you now believe you are a bad person for judging someone else’s appearance negatively, you may choose to isolate yourself from others for the day. Negative emotions and behaviors lead to more negative thinking, and the cycle begins again. Over time, negative thinking patterns can lead to poor mental health and/or poor self worth.
A simple way to break negative thought cycles is to approach your thoughts with curiosity rather than judgment. When a thought arises, ask yourself questions about the thought and its origins.. Does your inner voice sound like you or someone else when you notice this thought? What do your heart and gut say about this thought when it comes into your mind? Is this thought really representative of you and your values?
Watch for the meanings and judgments you place upon others or yourself based upon automatic negative thoughts and let these meanings and judgments go when you catch yourself engaging in them. Take negative thoughts for what they truly are, our brain’s way of just communicating with us and trying to make sense of the world around us. We are not only our thoughts and can choose how we want to respond to our thoughts when they arise.
