How to Overcome Negativity

“You’ve been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” — Louise Hay A little self-criticism is a good thing: It can be a reality check that spurs you to be a better person. But there is a vast difference between “I need to work out more,” which sparks your motivation, and “I’m a jiggly blob.” Many entrepreneurs defend their negative thought patterns and protect their pessimism by proclaiming themselves, realists. If you call yourself a realist, make sure you fully understand its definition first. A realist is a person who accepts a situation as it is and is prepared to deal with it accordingly. A realist does not expect constant problems, compounding them by dwelling on how it can only get worse. More likely, they will strategically think through a challenging situation and find a realistic solution. Negative thinking will hinder your brain’s ability to deal with complex and sometimes simple tasks. It can also prevent adequate processing of information and hinder your ability to think clearly. As if that’s not enough, the chronic stress of negativity will affect your body physically, often resulting in illness and emotional dysfunction. Cycles of negative thinking can result in a crashing-down effect on your life and business. So if you have the habit of anticipating the worst at every turn, begin to adopt a positive mindset with these three simple steps. Negativity is like cancer. It eats you away one word at a time. Most of your negative self talk is normal, we all do it. However, when you’re interpreting a situation through fear, you tend to see through a negative lens. That lens now dictates your focus and that is the root of negative self-talk. To overcome negativity you must: 1. Put your thoughts into words: Putting your thoughts into written or spoken words will help you confront their irrational basis. The ideal way to do this is to journal. Write down the thoughts in your mind exactly as you think them. Many times, just the mere act of writing your thoughts down will help you see how ridiculous some of them are. Once written down, discus them with a trusted friend. When you confront your thoughts, it’s amazing how small your fears become and clarity ensues. 2. Replace your assumptions with facts: Most of the time, your negative self-talk is based on misinformation. Take some time and gather the facts about your particular situation or idea. As you do so, you may realize that your assumptions were inaccurate all along. Remember, we judge most situations initially based on our belief systems. If that belief system is outdated, our perception may be inaccurate. Identifying and understanding the facts about your situation will help limit negative self-talk. 3. Make daily contradicting positive affirmations: Words are powerful because they create our reality. Change your words and you will change your world. What do I mean by positive affirmations? Basically, positive affirmations are positive thoughts or phrases which you repeat to yourself which describe how you want to be. The idea is that when you first start saying your positive affirmations, they may not feel real pr true, but with repetition they sink into your subconscious mind, and you really start to believe them, and eventually they become your reality, they become a self-fulfilling prophecy and actually become true. I have tried this myself and have found positive affirmations to be very effective. I used statements such as “I have the power to transform my life” to develop my self-confidence and self-esteem. Those affirmations helped me reframe my negative self-talk and helped me become a more positive person. I highly recommend making a list of positive affirmations and repeat them out loud every day. Negative self-talk is something that most of us experience from time to time, and it comes in many forms. It also creates significant stress, not only to us but to those around us if we’re not careful. If you practice the strategies given above for recognizing and changing any negative self-talk habits, you will be happier. I want to end this segment by giving you a challenge. For the next 7 days, I challenge you to reframe your negative self-talk and replace it with a positive one. Use the tools I shared above to combat negativity every time it shows its ugly head. If you accept this challenge, let me know by emailing me a comment at info@OptometryDivas.com; I can’t wait to see what happens as a result!