We are born with a negative wiring in our brains. It’s a survival strategy; our minds are always looking out for threats to ensure our existence. Spiraling down a negative rabbit hole can be far more detrimental than beneficial if you already have a chronic illness, such as an autoimmune disease. Over time, this negativity bias can have an impact on both your physical and emotional health.
It’s very normal for feelings of grief, rage, and terror to accompany that experience. However, the unfavorable side effect is that it may make the inflammation worse. All of this to say: We cannot discount the importance of the mind-body link, even though mindfulness is not the only tool available for long-term recovery.
If you often find yourself thinking negative thoughts, you might want to give these three strategies a shot:
1. Give Thanks.
Practicing thankfulness can be an easy approach to literally reprogram your brain. Once more, your brain is predisposed to negativity. However, thankfulness enables you to recognize the positive aspects of life as well, as opposed to trying to ignore the negative, which typically backfires.
Since 2015, I have been practicing gratitude. It’s so easy; all I must do is list three things that, each evening before going to bed, strike me as lovely and positive. I recognize the amazing aspects of my life that lie beyond the suffering, even if I was experiencing a flare that day. Even better: Being grateful helps to ease pain, lower inflammation, and relax the neurological system. Here’s the data! (1)
2. Review Your Thoughts.
A significant component of the mind-body relationship is challenging our beliefs. In essence? Not everything you think is true.
So, ask yourself a straightforward question whenever a bad thought arises. I’ll give you an example using an allergic response. When I started sneezing repeatedly for the first time, I thought, “Ugh, this is never going to end.” What physical harm is currently occurring to you? How did you contribute to its cause? It begins by making a lot of useless statements.
Change the narrative instead of going down that rabbit hole: “I’ll ask myself, ‘What made the sneezes go by faster in the past?'” What helped me during that process, and what hindered it? We just don’t ask our thoughts those questions very often, but I find that my mind wants to have the answers.”
Here, it’s important to challenge your negative ideas and refocus them before you fully accept them. It is necessary to retrain the mind to counterbalance its naturally pessimistic tendencies.
3. Give up using “I should” to guide your thoughts.
Should statements place an obligation on you that is occasionally unachievable to meet, which can lead to worrisome mind patterns.
Everyone is prone to error. Additionally, there are situations when feeling pressured to perform, behave, or feel a specific way leads to complete avoidance or procrastination of a task or activity. For some, this only makes them think even more anxiously.
Thus, pay attention to your ideas. Are you convincing yourself that actions are necessary? What is a more compassionate method of maintaining your motivation to continue course without going into a downward cycle of thought?
To Wrap Things Up
We can’t overlook the power of thinking to feel well. Of course, having a positive mindset won’t make you heal instantly, but having negative ideas can really have a bad impact on your health. Although our minds are predisposed to negativity, you may improve your general well-being by making a few small changes to your thinking.
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