How to Quickly Move Through Negative Thinking

Have you caught yourself thinking negatively about something?

Maybe someone else does something or says something, that triggers you?

If you have you’re not alone.

As humans we tend to focus more on the negative rather than the positive and there is an interesting evolutionary reason for it.

Back in the caveman days, cavemen needed to be constantly on the lookout for what could go wrong.

If there was a sabretooth tiger hiding in a bush and a caveman was busy chasing butterflies and reflecting on how beautiful the sunset was, the caveman was likely to not survive.

Evolutionary Psychology has stated this is why, over millions of years, humans are prone to focus on the negative side of life because for such a large portion of our existence being aware of what could go wrong was a means of survival.

Fast forward to today’s modern world and we live in temperature-controlled homes with running water, we are safe from predators, we have food in the fridge and clothes on our back.

(Which is more than millions of people in underdeveloped countries by the way)

Yet even with these modern comforts, our minds still stray to what could go wrong. What’s missing. What hasn’t happened yet.

Negative thinking is often a focus on what could go wrong or what’s missing. It can be in the context of our own life or in the context of another person where we are judging their actions or words because they are not meeting our expectations.

To quickly move through negative thinking, then, is to begin focusing on what is going right in life rather than wrong.

It doesn’t mean that we will not act to fix or solve any problems at work or at home that we are up against.

On the contrary; by letting go of negative thinking you are clearing mental clutter to free up space in your mind to clearly see your next action step.

Because there is a difference between thinking about something that is bothering you and looping through it in your mind ten times, versus taking one action step to solve it.

And when you start to focus on what is going right in life, you create space to appreciate everything you already have:

-Your family

-Your home

-Your career

-Your co-workers

As Sydney Banks has said, it’s as if you were looking East your whole life at what is missing and what is going wrong, and then start to look West and see everything you already have going for you.

And when you start to spend more time noticing how much you already have going for you, your mind continues to clear, elevating your state-of-mind.

You spend more time being present with your family.

Problems at work do not seem so overwhelming.

You appreciate everything you have and how hard you have worked for it.

You enjoy life more.

This is the key to opening one of the doors to a deeper enjoyment of life.

We are not cavemen anymore.

Let’s enjoy everything that we already have.

-Tracey

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P.S. I have updated my client testimonials on my website. If you would like to read them you can do so here.