Recognizing Negative Thinking

From ChannelConnect

The language you use, either through the commentary going on
in your head or when you are speaking out loud, reflects the nature of
your thoughts and beliefs. If negative, this voice can add to your
stress. If you can change it to a supportive voice, you will be on the
way to coping more effectively with the stress you are feeling.

The voice inside your head is known as your self-talk,
and can direct the way you think and behave. Negative self-talk
undermines you, and makes you believe that you cannot achieve, whereas
positive self-talk gives you the confidence to take up new challenges,
and believe that you can succeed.

There are five distinct areas of negative thoughts that need to be overcome:

• Focusing on the negative-This
  happens when you select a single negative aspect of an experience and
  focus entirely on that. This can also manifest itself in dismissing and
  devaluing positive experiences. Focusing on the negative and missing
  the positive makes you feel worse than you should.


• All or nothing thinking-All
  or nothing thinking involves looking at things in black and white
  terms. Often, this will involve you having a perception about an event
  or people's reactions, which has no basis in fact. Most life
  experiences are neither all good nor all bad; they fall somewhere in
  between. If you think only in extremes, you will often feel bad for no
  real reason.


• Overgeneralization and labeling-When
  you do this, you see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern
  of defeat. In its most extreme form, it involves attaching a negative
  label to yourself or others. For example, if a person makes one
  mistake, you may brand them a loser for ever more.
  


• Jumping to conclusions-This is also known as mind reading and fortune telling. It involves imagining other people's negative reactions, and imagining negative outcomes with no basis. 
  


• Personalization and blame-This
  happens when you hold yourself, someone else, or something else
  entirely responsible for an event. This can also extend to making heavy
  or unrealistic demands on yourself and others.

The
voice inside your head can support you, or undermine you. If it is
doing the latter, you need to take control, recognize your thoughts as
negative, and reduce your stress by doing something about it.