Negative thoughts: causes, signs and how to deal with them

Do you notice that negative thoughts are constantly running through your head? Do you always feel like something bad might happen? You don’t know what to do to finally find inner harmony and become calm?

This article will help you with this, which will tell you how to get rid of negative thoughts in your head. You will learn where negative thoughts come from, what to do with them and how to remove them forever.

How to distract yourself from bad thoughts: advice from a psychologist

Conclusion

Bad thoughts periodically visit even the happiest and most cheerful people. At the same time, some people know how to quickly drive them away, while others are oppressed and greatly ruin their lives.

What to do if bad thoughts come into your head? What methods of dealing with them can each person master? What advice do experienced psychologists give in this case?

Psychological advice

Living for more than two weeks in a swarm of obsessive thoughts is dangerous. We definitely need to start driving them away.

Release your anger

Helpful tips:

1. Try to throw out negative emotions: write and burn, scream into a pillow, cry, break plates.
2. Completely immerse yourself, “live” a bad thought. Work through every negative emotion, experience all possible scenarios. The brain is probably looking for a way out of a difficult situation.
3. Realize that the government, boss and wife are not to blame for bad thoughts. Take responsibility for your life.
4. You can drive away bad thoughts by focusing on the present. You shouldn't live in the past.
5. Often the reasons for a depressed state are the meaninglessness of existence, lack of mission and goals in life. It will be very useful to sit down and figure out what you would like to live for, what kind of life you can dream of and how to achieve it.
6. Listen to music and sing. However, you should not include heavy rock and metal, so as not to achieve the opposite effect. Classics have a positive effect on the psyche; singing can relieve suppressed emotions.
7. Keep a gratitude journal. Every day, write down any little thing for which you can say thank you to the world and those around you.
8. Accept the situation if it cannot be changed.
9. Switch to proper nutrition. Eating heavy food at night can result in poor sleep and worries about what it can mean. There are natural antidepressant products. These include banana, chocolate, honey, vegetables and others.
10. Try to avoid negative information. Don't communicate with people who complain all the time, stop watching the news.
11. Start every day with positive thoughts and attitudes.
12. It’s easy to remove negative thoughts if you develop the habit of looking for positive aspects in everything.

Now that it is clear how important it is to get bad thoughts out of your head, there should be no problems with motivation. To rid your mind of negativity and life from many problems, you should engage in the formation of healthy thinking

Why do they appear? Main reasons

Understanding the cause of negativity in the mind is the first step towards getting thoughts out of your head. Bad, evil, immoral thoughts do not arise out of emptiness. They always have a source that not only provokes the emergence of such ideas, but also constantly feeds them. This could be a personal negative experience, excessive impressionability when watching the news, or characteristics of one’s own psyche.

Psychologists believe the following factors are the main reasons why negative thoughts and ideas linger in the head:

• peculiarities of perception, skepticism, habit of lack of positivity;
• low self-esteem;
• suspiciousness, suspicion, excessive caution and other similar character traits;
• lack of ability to make decisions and desire to take responsibility;
• the influence of acquaintances, close people, an abundance of negative information around;
• loneliness;
• constant stress, forced daily overcoming of one’s own “I”, life in eternal compromise with something, an abundance of unfulfilled fantasies and repressed desires;
• emotional shock, personal tragedy.

Each of these factors poses a danger to the human psyche. Even one of them can provoke the emergence and take root of negative thoughts. The combination of several such factors inevitably leads to the development of negative thinking.

Bad thoughts and OCD

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a serious mental disorder that can lead to severe consequences. Its main forms of expression are obsessions - uncontrollable obsessive thoughts and compulsions - obsessive actions. A person becomes a hostage to the conditions imposed on him by the disease, without being able to overcome them on his own. This greatly affects all areas of life, interferes with work, becomes a hindrance in relationships, and affects family life.

Normal bad thoughts are not OCD, at least as long as you manage to cope with them. But if you feel the need to perform meaningless actions, for example, constantly checking whether your keys are in place, whether the door is closed, whether there is dust on the windowsill, whether there is a smell from clothes, etc., then it’s time to sound the alarm. The disorder may develop from a long-term anxiety state. If you let it take its course.

How to deal with obsessive thoughts and emotions

Physical activity has been and remains the best cure for unnecessary thoughts. It is better if it is a collective action, supported by positive emotions, for example, playing football with friends, going to a club with a large group and dancing until the morning.

Solo exercise, walking, jogging, going to the pool and cycling also have an effective distracting effect. And even a simple set of push-ups, squats and bends left and right and back and forth can reboot the brain for the next few minutes.

In second place are any household chores that require simple physical effort and take a lot of time. For example, do the cleaning, cook borscht, remove garbage from the balcony, sort through and neatly put things in the closet, remove and wash the curtains. Men can go to the garage and clean it up. Just, mind you, no alcohol!

Any creative activity is also very effective in distracting from disturbing thoughts - knitting, sewing, embroidery, drawing, playing musical instruments. Try cross-stitching some picture – any one, even one that you won’t show to anyone. Try to learn some melody on the piano - any melody, even if only you like it and you will not perform it in public anywhere.

If everything is literally “out of your hands” and you can’t do anything, try to plunge into other people’s emotions. The plot of a movie or book can distract you from your own experiences for several hours. And then, you see, you won’t want to return to them anymore.

Going to a movie, theater or concert has approximately the same effect - the plot of a film or play always involves solving a problem. It may well turn out that it is much more complicated than yours. Or, on the contrary, it will be similar to yours, and your anxious thoughts will finally be directed in a constructive direction.

Look for an interesting online crowd on social networks, for example, photographers, HR managers, lovers of rock music, cats, or jokes. As a rule, there is a lot of energizing positivity there. And besides, such online parties tend to flow smoothly offline. This was the case before the coronavirus restrictions and these are the plans of many online communities for the next year.

From the previous point follows another way to distract yourself from negative thoughts - plan a trip for next year to a city or even a new country. Even if by next year you find something more interesting to do, now is a very real chance to feel a surge of strength and gain an understanding of what to do, at least in the next 10-12 months.

Those who have experience in meditative practices can be advised to visualize the experience and “release” it. For example, imagine all your problems as coupled carriages of a train going into the distance and taking your problems beyond the horizon. Or in the form of film frames - then you just have to get up and leave the movie.

Let us now briefly summarize the above. Top 10 ways to put obsessive thoughts to rest:

1. Collective and positive activities - football, volleyball, basketball, dancing.
2. Individual sports activities - swimming, cycling, exercise equipment, skateboarding, roller skating.
3. Household chores - washing, cleaning, cooking, putting the house in order.
4. Creativity – knitting, sewing, embroidery, drawing, playing musical instruments.
5. Literature and art - books, films, theaters, museums, exhibitions, concerts.
6. Online communities of interests - photography, humor, animals, personal growth and creative development.
7. Travel and trip planning.
8. Actually travel and trips, if possible.
9. Meditative practices.
10. Relaxation techniques – deep diaphragmatic breathing, self-massage, calm music.

You can learn more about meditative practices and relaxation techniques in our “Mental Self-Regulation” program. In a month and a half, you will take control of everything that happens in your life and learn to respond adequately to stress.

And finally, what if all the methods have been tried, but there is no relief and no relief in sight? Perhaps it is for you that your situation is a stalemate. Moreover, regardless of what all the psychologists combined told you about this. Then it’s worth taking the advice of the Meladze brothers: “If things don’t work out, don’t wait!” And not to repeat the mistakes of others, clearly described in the video for the song “My Brother,” when “I spent half my life getting used to it, but I just had to leave.” Sometimes, indeed, you just need to leave and not tire with your presence those who generate negativity in your life.

We wish you extremely positive and joyful thoughts. And the more, the better!

We also recommend reading:

• Storytelling
• Seven ways to stop rumination
• Dorian Gray Syndrome
• Obsessive-compulsive neurosis: how to distinguish a disorder from thought spam?
• Post-traumatic stress disorder: briefly about the most important things
• Signs of neurosis
• Overcoming obsessive thoughts
• Occupational Therapy - Lose yourself in activity
• The best blog content in 2021: psychology
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Five problems during your first meditation

Key words: 1Cognitive science, 1Psychoregulation

Causes of negative thoughts

So how to get unnecessary thoughts out of your head? You need to start by analyzing situations and determining the reasons for their occurrence.

The most well-known reasons may be:

Character traits. Many people have had this mood since childhood. This remains a habit in the future. Such people are called complainers. They engage in soul-searching and become pessimists, looking at the world in gray. Sensitive people take everything to heart because of their nature. They constantly replay the events that happened in their heads. Low self-esteem. Flaws in appearance, psychological reasons or other deviations are the cause of insecurity

People focus on their shortcomings, and it seems to them that everyone around them sees their defects, and they cannot relax. Low self-esteem also occurs in people with an attractive appearance; the reason for this development is reproaches and condemnations from others

Negative experience. Unpleasant situations (eg violence) can also affect the psyche and thinking. People have a fear that this could happen again in the future. Suspiciousness. This type of character manifests itself in constant vigilance and fear. The basis for such behavior is a book, a movie, or a news story read. Such people have a delusion of persecution. Inability to make a decision. It manifests itself in people who cannot decide what they want. That is, they doubt their choice. Environment. The people around us very often convince us that everything is very bad, they impose their opinions, while criticizing everything around us. In such cases, people develop complexes and fear of the future. Loneliness. Many people in our society are very lonely, they need care, love, attention. Elderly people most often find themselves in this situation and have nowhere to look for support. A difficult situation during which certain events occurred (quarrel, divorce, accident with a loved one). In such cases, you should not become depressed and withdraw into yourself. In such a case, you need to think about the good.

Impact of quality of life perception

If you determine the relationship between the number of thoughts by their mood, you can identify a certain pattern. This polarity of the thought process largely determines your attitude, at the moment, to what is happening in your life. Everyone knows that there are optimists and pessimists.

Photo by Wilson Vitorino: Pexels

These two types differ in the quality of their perception of life. An optimist sees positive potential in everything that happens around him, opportunities for realizing the most impossible plans. His belief in the good and the best is often very annoying: well, you can’t smile if your knees are broken.

A pessimist perceives the world from the position: “everything is bad now, and it will be even worse.” This point of view is closer to many of us. Our faith in a bad, tragic scenario can be absolute even with very good input indicators.

It is this belief that, as a rule, makes a negative scenario the only possible one. Our inner pessimist produces those very “bad thoughts”, which then persistently impose on us their attitude to what is happening.

The most advanced level is thinking from the perspective of an unbiased observer: contemplative. They, as a rule, do not have an emotional connotation. Their task is simply to record, without showing any interest or participation.

How to abstract yourself from negativity

Forget an unpleasant situation

You may think that this is very difficult to do, but most likely you have not made enough attempts to achieve the desired result.

It is important to realize that the event that worries you is really behind you, and no amount of thinking will prevent this situation from happening in the past. However, by reliving those events again and again, you leave them in your present, instead of turning this page of life and leaving it behind you.

Think about what you could do with your time if you didn't regularly engage in completely unnecessary thoughts.

Get rid of vulgar thoughts

To get rid of this kind of thinking, you should redirect it in a completely different direction. Think about pressing everyday issues or tasks that you need to solve at work. Also, a good option in such cases is watching some invigorating films - for example, comedies.

How not to beat yourself up

Remember how many times you expected some catastrophic consequences from a situation, but in the end nothing special happened. What were you thinking at those moments? They probably reproached themselves for “overthinking.” Think how unproductive this is! It turns out that nothing terrible happens, but you experience the whole “bouquet” of negative sensations as if the worst had happened. It turns out that it makes no difference what the outcome will be if, anyway, you have already begun to undermine your nervous system.

Make yourself a rule: you will not think about bad things, and you will do everything in your power to resolve some pressing issue. If the outcome turns out to be unsatisfactory, you will give vent to your worries, but until then there is no reason for them!

How to deal with negativity - advice from a psychologist

1) Give yourself a break. For example, if, in an unpredictable development of events, you are immediately overcome by negative thoughts, learn to change this tradition. Do not “flare up” in any unclear or negative situations

Switch your attention immediately to something else - call a colleague on some business, relatives or friends. Of course, don’t discuss the problem with them.

Talk about something else, listen to them. In the meantime, the initial emotions will subside and you will be able to think more rationally about the situation.

2)

Think positive. If you are faced with something unpleasant, and you have already had time to calmly think about how you can eliminate this aspect from your life, then you no longer need to return to these thoughts again and again. Make a decision right away about what you can do and whether you can do it at all. After this, interrupt your thoughts on gloomy topics with some pleasant thoughts - about the past or upcoming vacation, about some pleasant event, and the like.

Bad thoughts in teenagers, thoughts about death

Teenagers mostly sleep. They have already been trained according to templates. Programming in the form of “training” is already in effect. If you are a parent, change the way you think about them. Focus them on the fact that they are the best, good, affectionate and kind and smart. Not in words, it’s all false and useless. Even if you say halva 100 times, it won’t make your mouth any sweeter.

Emotions are what matters. If you look at your child and think how beautiful, good, kind he is. Even if he is not like that now, he was in childhood. Or put a child's photo that you like best, look at it and express emotions of love for him, praise him.

After some time, you will be amazed at the change in his behavior for the better.

If you are a teenager and you begin to have bad thoughts and even thoughts of suicide or death. Things are bad. They've captured you. Your mind is at their mercy. Is it dangerous. Here is the best way to stop the flow of thoughts completely. I wrote above how to do this.

In addition, try to look for as many positive emotions as possible. There are always good thoughts behind them. We get hooked and the law of attraction begins to work. Other good thoughts will follow. Watch comedies, KVN, etc. at least for a start.

I assure you, after some time, these thoughts of death will simply disappear. You will be on a different vibration level. They basically can’t get there.

Habit of thinking badly

We all really want to be positive. Cheerful. In a good mood. No one in their right mind would say: “I want to be negative and bad!”

However, excessive concentration on negative thoughts that becomes pathological and becomes a way of life can have deep psychological causes.

A negative person has many advantages. And the neighbors will hear about the fatal illness of the second cousin of my mother’s neighbor in the country, and you can always count on the help of relatives and friends, and you can always count on special treatment at work as the most unfortunate person in the world, etc.

Think about what benefits you get from your negative thoughts? Be honest with yourself.

If benefits are still discovered, try to satisfy your needs in a different way, without focusing on others. On one's own. Without benefit, the symptom will disappear.

TATYANA BELOKONSKAYA, specially for Evrikak.ru

Woe from the mind: where do negative thoughts in the head come from?

1. Diffidence

You feel unsure in life, it seems to you that you have been a failure since childhood, and it is unlikely that anything will come of it.

When you take on something, you think a hundred times about “is it worth it”, “do I need this”, will I look stupidly stupid, etc. As a result, you are marking time in the same place, doing nothing, and this leads to the next point.

1. Unrealization

You feel that you have many complexes and doubts. Sometimes you even regret missed opportunities and wish that at one time or another you should have acted more decisively. One way or another, you do nothing to change the situation, and remain in the same swamp.

1. Impotence

There is a black streak in your life and you don’t know how to get out of it, sometimes there are moments that you don’t even want to live. You give up and the future seems scary and gloomy. You don’t know what to expect next, feeling completely powerless in your situation.

Maybe you broke up with your loved one and don’t know how you can forget him and stop thinking about him, or maybe even worse, you have a love addiction to a person.

1. Guilt

You made a mistake and feel guilty. Your negative thoughts haunt you. You replay this situation in your head over and over again, exacerbating the feeling of guilt.

1. Fears

You are afraid that the bad thoughts that your consciousness draws will definitely come true. You berate yourself for being weak and unable to resist these thoughts.

You cannot live a full life because obsessive thoughts “eat you from the inside”

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How to get rid of all unnecessary thinking and preparation from your head

It is very easy to fall into the trap of negative thinking, chronic fatigue and depressive moods. But getting out of this terrible state is very difficult. How to understand that the question “how to get rid of everything unnecessary from your head” is relevant, and you should no longer delay cleaning your consciousness:

• 90% of your day is spent in a negative mindset. You smile extremely rarely, you don’t see humor where others see it;
• Your beloved children, friends, hobbies, pets no longer make you happy. You want to keep your distance or even run away from them;
• Your performance has decreased;
• You have insomnia, panic attacks, or are constantly waiting for something bad to happen;
• You have increased sleepiness and are drawn to sleep, even if you have slept for the required 7-9 hours. At the same time, you do not get sick, and there are no inflammatory processes in the body;
• You just have an attack of diseases, as soon as you recover, the next disease haunts you. These can be not only colds and viruses, but also cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the digestive tract, frequent migraines and pressure surges;
• You went on what seemed like a long-awaited vacation, but you still didn’t feel any joy. On the contrary, disappointment and bad mood haunt you;
• You are haunted by the same negative thoughts. You find it increasingly difficult to switch from negativity to your daily activities. For example, in the morning, while you make coffee, turn on the news and that’s it - work goes down the drain, and instead of taking care of business, you discuss or twist the same events in your head. By the way, slagging of the brain can be invisible. For example, a constant craving to listen to music, watch TV series or read books. That is, do anything, just so as not to be alone with your thoughts.

So, if you find yourself in one of the points, it’s time to “tidy up” your head and turn on the reset. After all, this is exactly what we do in cases where our electronic device freezes - we clean it of debris and reboot it for productive, high-quality work. So why not reboot yourself and live again as you did in childhood - enjoying every new day?

How to get rid of everything unnecessary from your head

By the way, if you have a teenager growing up in your family, this topic will most likely be close to him. The modern generation is so overloaded with information that by the age of 11-13, children complain of fatigue immediately after waking up, they have changeable moods and are constantly depressed. During this time, cleaning and rebooting the brain will do an excellent job for the guys.

In this article we provide ways to get rid of everything unnecessary from your head and reboot your consciousness, starting a new, qualitatively better life. But we understand that it is difficult for a person with slagged thoughts, increased fatigue and a negative attitude to complete all 35 steps in one day. So start small and take small steps every day. Very little time will pass and you will see how you easily go through all the stages in a few days, and new habits will replace those that created slagging in your consciousness.

You create your own happiness

You can feel like a happy, rich, healthy, successful person right now. The secret is that you control your emotions and thoughts, not they control you.

You can begin to experience love even if you don't have it yet, you can feel like a millionaire even if you don't have a penny in your pocket. If you manage to do this, the following will happen: the Universe will tune in to your frequency and the world around you will gradually become the way you want it to be.

In articles on our website we have already talked more than once about the thinking of a poor person. Negative thoughts related to money prevent you from moving forward and starting to earn 2-3 times more.

However, I’m sure you can increase your income in just 2 months, without even changing jobs, if you do this >>>

Your reality manifests according to your inner feeling. If you experience positive emotions every day, then no negative thoughts will be a problem for you.

What will not get rid of bad thoughts?

When treating obsessive thinking, self-pity or excessive severity can be a disservice.

It seems that the person understands that he needs to drive away negativity from himself, but at the same time he likes that people feel sorry for him. He begins to feel sorry for himself, blaming fate for his failures. He gives up, he believes that it is not worth trying, it will still turn out badly. So, for example, people go on a diet. The long-awaited Monday has arrived, a promise has been made to myself, there is a goal - a photograph of a model. But then a person begins to enjoy being pitied and being convinced that his figure is not the main thing. And now, having calmed himself down, he eats another high-calorie portion of food.

Or are you planning to relax? But there is a fear that you won’t have time to sort things out, which means that a vacation on the seashore won’t happen. With fear comes anxiety. In this case, we drive away bad thoughts from ourselves, we make an attitude, like the heroines of a film about the most charming and attractive. We sit down and imagine ourselves on the seashore, in silence, without worries. Bad thoughts will immediately fade into the background.

Isn't it harmful to think too much?

This is how these “bad thoughts” are born in your head: you yourself create these sand monsters. It seems to you that you are thinking, but in fact you are searching for information that will allow you to refuse action in this direction. Now we are not talking about intuition, inner feeling: this respected human ability, in contrast to the poisonous process of changing our thoughts.

Thinking as a process robs you of life itself. You spend your time digesting the events that have already happened in your life, but can you really change anything by repeating the circle within them? You are trying to predict future events, thinking through any options, but you cannot take into account all external events and internal processes.

This is not available to you. Instead of making a decision to take action and starting the action itself, focusing on the present situation, you look for excuses for refusing this action, and you are sure to find them.

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How to get thoughts of a person out of your head

Realize that when you think about this person, you are clinging to the past, because if you do not want to think about a certain person, it means that he is not in your present life, or you do not want this. You know very well that the past is unchangeable, but you own your present and future! Think about what you spend it on? Are there really no people more dear to you in your life right now that you could think about and who deserve your attention and care?

How and what to do to distract yourself:

• The more you are busy with important and interesting things, the less time you will have for unproductive thoughts about the person you don’t want to think about.
• Meet with your family or close friends more often. In conversations with him, you do not remember the past that you are trying to forget. Spend time in a warm, cozy and positive atmosphere!
• Take up interesting hobbies that have attracted you for a long time. We can talk about dancing classes, training in the gym, painting lessons, vocal lessons, embroidery, horse riding and much more.
• Try registering on a dating site or going to various crowded events more often. Your task is to start meeting other people, even if you don’t feel like it right now. Gradually, new acquaintances will displace from your life all the remnants of a past that has long been unnecessary to you.
• Traveling is one of the best and most enjoyable ways to escape. Give yourself a firm determination to leave all bad thoughts in your hometown, going on a trip with a light heart and a clear head. Choose a tour according to your preferences - a beach holiday or numerous excursions. It will be great if some loved one joins you. Surely, while traveling you will gain so many positive emotions that upon arrival the thoughts that previously bothered you will seem distant and meaningless.

Obsessive and bad thoughts after drinking

Well, it's the same here. The binge itself is a consequence of the fact that your mind is already captured. It's not far from the extreme. We need to get out urgently. Again, start small. You won't be able to achieve joy right away. I always recommend everyone to start with the easiest thing - comedies, jokes, KVN and other funny events.

Then stopping the internal dialogue as I wrote above. Unless of course you want to get to the point. Understand that all life is a series of choosing a direction. As you chose, so will you live.

You think this is all bullshit. Then go get drunk and lie around . It's your choice. Do you want to live like a person, have a house, a lot of money and a happy family. Curb your EGO and the thoughts it feeds on. It's simple.

Why do bad thoughts come into my head?

According to one version, bad thoughts are a symptom of a number of mental pathologies. They develop well against the background of complexes, phobias, fears, depression, after psychological trauma and in conditions of difficult relationships with others. In other words, if you have a hard time, then bad thoughts will come into your head. In this case, it is necessary to treat the source disease, for example, to fight depression.

The second option is more difficult and dangerous. The patient of a psychologist or psychiatrist has neither pathologies nor other reasons for the development of obsessive states, but the conditions still develop. It feels like the symptoms appear out of the blue. However, the absence of a disease-cause does not mean that there is no cause at all; rather, it suggests that it should not be looked for in the field of pathologies. What could it be? Your own way of thinking, habits, reactions to stimuli.

How does this happen? No life is complete without negativity, anxiety, disappointment and other powerful negative emotions. This is normal and even has some benefit, because without negative emotions a person, firstly, would lose the taste for positive ones, and secondly, would not be able to keep himself in the necessary tone.

But where one person overcomes negativity and puts a “plus” in the journal of personal experience, another allows negativity to take over his thoughts. Here are a few types of people who will seem familiar to you:

Sufferers. They revel in suffering, love to procrastinate and count their misfortunes. They cannot drive them away for a very long time, because they themselves feed them. Hypochondriacs. They see the danger of getting sick or losing their health in everything

They pay attention to every change in their condition, always perceiving it as something bad. Underpants. They are afraid of everything in the world, they always exaggerate or even invent danger

Very nervous and suspicious. Defeatists. Whatever a person with a loser complex undertakes, he knows in advance that he will not be able to do anything. If the outcome depends on luck, he will be unlucky. If from effort, he will not have enough strength, experience and abilities.

What thoughts are bad

Bad thoughts are overwhelming and depressive fantasies that come into your head. They can be real and have already happened. Often these are memories that torment the soul and give no peace.

Also, many people perceive the degree of horror of their own thoughts differently. For some, an interesting way to kill a person will be a good idea, but for others it will make them worry for another week.

In fact, bad thoughts differ from good ones in that negative thoughts have a state of obsession. This thought begins to haunt you and drive you into a depressive state. You yourself understand that these thoughts bring you a lot of sadness and anger, but you still continue to replay such situations or things in your head.

Why are bad thoughts dangerous?

It seems to you that what does not come out and what others do not know about is only yours and no one else’s. This does not cause any harm to your loved ones, and only sometimes spoils your mood. In fact, it's much worse than you think.

The influence of bad thoughts:

1. It has long been known that thoughts are material and can come true . You probably noticed that something good that you constantly thought about happened. However, people always see negativity, but do not perceive it as a consequence of something far-fetched, but consider it part of their rightness. Unfortunately, in most cases this would not happen if you yourself were not thinking about such things around the clock. You are bringing trouble upon yourself and sincerely do not understand your guilt.
2. You are depriving yourself of a wonderful future . Constantly replaying bad situations does not allow you to decide to take a serious step. You become insecure and suspicious, your self-esteem and realistic assessment of your capabilities decrease. Constant stress and sadness do not allow you to move on and do what you think about, but with caution. It seems that you are not worthy of anything and therefore you lose the battle in advance, without even starting it.
3. You are ruining your health . All bad thoughts primarily affect the nervous system. Regular stress can take its toll on the body. This is how irritability, suspiciousness, nervousness and tearfulness appear. Remember that persistent depression cannot go away without consequences.
4. Sooner or later everything can turn into pathology . This is how serious psychological illnesses develop. At the beginning, negative thoughts appear, and then they become more and more numerous. The nervous system suffers and suspiciousness appears. If you have relatives with similar disorders, it means there is goodwill. In this case, being constantly depressed is especially dangerous.

Read: How to calm your nerves and relieve stress - the best tips and tricks

What helps you get rid of negative thoughts

To get rid of negative thoughts, use these tips:

1. Be surrounded by positive people. Research shows that people adopt the behavior of those around them. If you are around pessimistic people, you will also begin to think negatively. Hang out with optimists and emulate their positive attitude.
2. Share your emotions with your loved ones. Talk to people you trust about your concerns. Close people will be able to listen and sometimes help you cope with the problem. Psychotherapists say that expressing thoughts in a comfortable environment can be enough to eliminate them. This is especially true for women. We can talk enough to make our souls feel better.
3. Calm down. When negative thoughts begin to overwhelm you, close your eyes, take 10 deep breaths and relax your muscles. This will help reduce overall tension and stress, reduce stomach pain associated with anxiety, and improve sleep.
4. Fill your free time. Bad thoughts often come when you are alone or in your free time. Indulge in hobbies, spend time with friends, visit your favorite places, listen to pleasant music to distract yourself.
5. Take care of your body. There is a direct connection between mental and physical health. Exercise helps relieve stress and promotes positive thinking by releasing endorphins in the body. Eat a healthy diet and drink 2 liters of water a day to keep your body hydrated, and get enough rest and sleep (at least 8 hours).
6. Express gratitude. Make a list of things you are grateful for in life. A reminder of what is most precious warms the soul and gives rise to positive thoughts.
7. Be optimistic. When you feel a negative reaction to something, try to find the good in the situation. Be optimistic and make room for humor. Laughter promotes positive thinking. To attract light positive thoughts, remember a funny story, joke or watch a comedy.
8. Focus on the present moment. When you are immersed in unfavorable reasoning, you completely lose touch with the delights of the present moment. Focus on what is happening around you. When you live in the present moment, the past and future have no power over you. This approach is used in yoga and meditation.

When does negative thinking form? Root Causes of Negative Thoughts

If bad thoughts come to mind, then people often begin to look for their reasons in recent events, in their environment, in current life circumstances. Without a doubt, that's where they are. However, it is worth thinking about why, being in similar circumstances, some people begin to think negatively and imagine all sorts of horrors, while others do not.

Psychologists say that the root cause of negativity that arises in the human mind is childhood trauma, and current life circumstances act as an alarm clock, the ringing of which awakens this type of thinking. In other words, bad thoughts in the head arise not only due to real circumstances or mental characteristics, but also because a person has a tendency to have and retain negativity in his consciousness.

A negative type of thinking is formed in childhood. As a rule, it occurs due to the fault of parents who suppress the child. The development of a tendency towards a negative perception of reality is also influenced by the child’s personal experience - failures, problems in the garden, being alone in his room, constant dissatisfaction with adults, family conflicts, lack of holidays, desired gifts and much more.

The child very quickly learns that, regardless of his actions, everything in life will be bad. He gets used to negativity and constantly waits for it. This habit transforms over the years into a negative type of thinking. And as soon as something happens that awakens the experience acquired in childhood, a person begins to think about how to get rid of the bad thoughts that poison his life from his head.

Reasons for bad thoughts

Every anxiety has a source. It must be determined in order to understand how to proceed. Very often negative stories from the past interfere with life. A person experiences guilt (although it may be far-fetched) and constantly worries about this.

For other people, negativity becomes a character trait. They are also called complainants. They love to do soul-searching and have been pessimists since childhood.

Negative personal qualities also poison life. This may be self-doubt, in which any event or decision becomes a test. Suspiciousness can be viewed in the same vein. In such a person, anything can put anxiety in his head, from a news report to the conversation of random passers-by.

Of course, the source can also be real problems that a person cannot solve. Waiting for the outcome is what makes you nervous, imagining not the most optimistic scenarios in your head.

But religion explains in its own way why there are always bad thoughts in your head. It is believed that the cause of obsessions and experiences is evil spirits, demons. They need to be fought in an unconventional way - through prayer.

Let's look at several techniques that psychologists recommend using when bad thoughts arise.

Directions of bad thoughts

According to statistics, one thought arises in the mind of an ordinary person every second. Most, about 95 percent, of these thoughts are mental gum that you think through regularly every day. Moreover, 80 percent of this chewing gum has a negative emotional connotation. Where can there be a happy ending for our fairy tale?

“Bad thoughts” usually fall in the following directions:

• "They thought or will think badly of me"
• Everything in the world is either good or bad,
• “There is little chance that everything will work out”
• “I don’t have the qualities to implement my plans”
• “It’s all my fault. Everything bad happens because of me."
• The flagellation or self-torture itself: “I’m mediocre”, “There’s something wrong with my head”

Why do obscene and blasphemous thoughts appear? Are they bad?

Very often, people understand by bad not negative, but indecent, immoral or blasphemous ideas that appear in their minds. For example, if a man sees a provocatively dressed girl in a cafe, “very bad thoughts” appear in his head. Of course, not every man begins to imagine what he would do with a provocatively dressed woman. However, this is the exception rather than the rule; the vast majority of representatives of the stronger sex give free rein to their imagination, and then begin to be ashamed of it.

Such thoughts are not negative. These are fantasies that are made up of information received from outside; they are not based on personal experience. That is, if a person experiences irritation at the sight of a smoker and imagines what he would do with a smoking cigarette, where he would “direct” it, this is a fantasy.

Such thoughts appear because a person has given his brain a direction. And the mind responded by producing a set of images that were present in films, books, news stories, and paintings familiar to the person.

Are such thoughts dangerous? Do you need to get rid of them? Psychologists believe that if fantasies occur periodically, then there is nothing wrong with it and there is nothing to worry about. But if they become obsessive and a person begins to look for ways to implement them, then he needs the help of a psychotherapist.

Blasphemous thoughts are, as a rule, grumbling, blaming the Lord for one’s own powerlessness, failures, and troubles. They indicate that a person is not able to accept responsibility for what is happening in his life. That is, in this case, you should not think about how to get thoughts out of your head, you need to start correcting your life position. You need to learn to make decisions and take responsibility for them.

Psychologist's advice

Here's what you need to do first when you find yourself replaying some unpleasant situation in your head for several days:

• 1. Identify your negative thoughts

  Sometimes you don't even realize what ideas are running through your head. Moreover, you have no idea how they affect you. Sometimes you even think that sudden ideas that appear are true, even if they don't come close to reflecting reality.

  To better identify them and then remove them completely from your mind, you should try to become aware of your most common emotions. Think about what you say to yourself, how you say it, and when you say it. Write down these recurring ideas.

  And then reflect on the course of these reasonings. Think about their origin, number of repetitions and consequences. Do this from the point of view of an outside observer. If a friend tells you that he is in this state, what will you answer? This will help you see things from a different perspective and help you remove negativity from your life.

• 2. Adopt some of these ideas.

  It is equally important to accept some of these thoughts. Recognize that such experiences are necessary in certain circumstances. Do not forget that it is impossible and even harmful to constantly try to block, avoid or eliminate negativity, this leads to the fact that it begins to bloom lushly, like a weed.

• 3. Change your persistent negative thoughts (thought patterns)

  Once these enemies have been identified, you are ready to change them. You can gradually begin to think more realistically and positively. To do this ask yourself:

• How else can I interpret these reflections?
• Could there be other, more realistic, logical and positive interpretations?

You might find it helpful to make a list.

Once you have questioned each worry, it is time to start introducing alternative thoughts into your mind. They should be equally applicable to the situation, but more positive, realistic and adaptive. The idea is not to eliminate negative reasoning, but to change its focus. You must learn to question yourself and look critically at your negative thoughts so that they begin to lose their hold on your mind.

Learning to manage your negative thoughts is a process that takes a lot of time, practice and consistency. A personal psychologist who specializes in working with similar problems will help you speed up this process. You can find one easily and quickly on our Helppoint service. Answer the questions in the questionnaire and the algorithm will instantly select a specialist for you who will help you get rid of negative patterns in a few sessions.

• 4. Boost your self-esteem

  Low self-esteem sometimes causes negative thoughts as a result of lack of self-confidence. This causes you to constantly doubt yourself and what you are doing, which leads to negative upsets.

  Another starting point is to think about your self-concept. Consider whether the way you perceive yourself affects how you deal with negative thoughts.

How to stop thinking bad thoughts

The advice you will find here is not suitable for treating OCD or other illnesses that cause negative thoughts. If your problem is medical in nature, it should be treated with complex therapy, that is, a combination of psychotherapy and medication under the watchful supervision of a doctor. If there is no serious problem yet, there is only discomfort and a desire to improve your sense of self, then these methods are for you. With them, you can stop thinking bad thoughts about yourself, prevent the development of pathologies, restore healthy well-being, and reduce the degree of nervous tension and stress without medications.

Don't follow the lead

The thoughts in your head are always different. The number of negative or positive thoughts can prevail only under the influence of external or internal circumstances. For example, if there is fighting in the region where you live, it will be difficult to distract yourself from bad thoughts and fear. If you have OCD, your thoughts will also be mostly bad. The first circumstance is external, the second is internal. Under normal circumstances, you have both.

For example, imagine opening a news feed in your browser and seeing many different headlines there. Some headlines generate pure negativity: increased crime, rallies, terrorism, etc. Other headlines give reasons for optimism: economic growth, the arrival of good weather, new social benefits, etc. The content of the articles under these headings is not up to you, but you can choose what to read and what not. In one case you will be happy, in another you will ruin your mood.

Thoughts in your head appear according to the principle of news feed headlines; you can choose which thought to give importance to, what to think about. An abundance of bad thoughts suggests that you choose bad news in your feed.

The best method of counteracting here is not to be led by bad headlines, no matter what they contain, no matter what techniques are used to attract your attention

Intentionally look for the positive.

You can make an effort to intentionally add positivity to your information field and expand your choices. You know best how to do this, you know yourself better than anyone. If you have no ideas, just try something new all the time, change the environment, make friends, change your hobbies. Sport gives a lot of positive feelings; this happens at the chemical level, since the body is programmed to encourage beneficial physical activity by releasing the hormone of joy. You don't have to buy an expensive gym membership; try a simple jog in the morning or evening. All you need are running shoes and a little patience.

Another powerful source of positivity is art and creativity. The difference between these concepts is that art is accessible to you as a viewer, creativity is accessible to you as an author. These are completely different emotional states - from participation and from creation. It doesn't matter what you do, be it dancing, drawing or acting - everything is equally effective.

Calm your mind

Human consciousness is like a child forced to sit in one place. It is disobedient, fickle, constantly jumping from one object of attention to another. Conduct an experiment - focus on something monotonous, for example, counting your breathing. See how quickly you'll lose count

The reason for this is not even the thoughts that pop into your head, but your inability to fix attention. It just doesn't obey you

To correct the situation, you need to train yourself to keep your attention on an object or action that you choose yourself. But not by coercion and force, this is the path to nowhere

Try to deliberately not think about something, and you will immediately understand why compulsion does not work here. To set yourself up for the good and get rid of bad thoughts from your head, be patient, exercise every day, do it wherever possible. Public transport, breaks at work, etc. will do.

Come up with a substitute for bad thoughts

Have you heard of mantras? These are short phrases of religious content, mainly in Sanskrit or Chinese. Europeans often confuse mantra with prayer and make mistakes, because prayer is an appeal to God, and a mantra is just text. Even if this text contains an appeal to God, the mantra is not used as a prayer, it is needed for endless repetitions

It is in Buddhism and Hinduism, two religions that practice mantra meditation, that much attention is paid to harmonizing consciousness, clearing it of bad thoughts and anxiety

Correcting the situation

To improve your love relationships, you must first ask yourself: “How am I feeling right now?” Remember, your emotions are indicators of your thoughts. If you are angry with your partner, he has offended you or disappointed you in some way - now you are controlled by negative thoughts. And this will not lead to anything good. You need to switch to another frequency, positive.

I repeat that first - thought, and then - reality.

Many people tend to shift responsibility for their own happiness to other people. You are waiting for someone else to make you happy. And then you are disappointed that this does not happen and the person does not manage to make you, in your understanding, happy. Because your joy and your happiness depend on only one person on Earth - you.

Your happiness is born in your heart.

What gets in the way of dealing with obsessive negative thoughts?

How to remove bad thoughts from your head? Psychologists say that sometimes it is enough to stop doing what helps them take root and become obsessive. These same actions hinder the fight against negativity in the mind; thanks to them, all attempts by a person to learn to think positively fail.

The following hinders the fight against bad thoughts:

• feeling of self-pity;
• excessive severity and exactingness;
• the habit of thinking about something in a negative way, for example, imagining the consequences of a child going for a walk with the dog alone;
• anxiety.

These habits are not directly related to bad thoughts, but they help them take root in the mind and make it difficult to cope with them.