Naturally, negative thinking itself is, in fact, one of our most toughest battle. It's part of who we are and how we think instinctively to survive and avoid risks. However, negative thinking destroys our enthusiasm and motivation. It breeds indecision, procrastination and derail us from our goal-orientated actions.
According to Alison Ledgerwood, Social psychologist at the University of California, says most of our perception of the world tends to lean negative, and re-framing how we communicate could be the key to unlocking a more positive outlook.
"The scary thing is, we're so used to our negative thinking that we aren't even aware when we're doing it. Consequently, we need to listen closely to the content of our thoughts, and we need to hear our words as we speak them."
1. Surround Yourself With Positive People
Do not be afraid to distance yourself from people who always bring you down. We change and adapt to environment we're surrounded in. Just like this quote:
"When man first encountered crime, they hated it the most. When man lived with crime, they'll try and adapt the environment. When man is surrounded by crime long enough, they'll embrace and commit it."
Positive people brings the energy and rekindles your spirit, without you realising. According to Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Author, says that friends can exert a measurable and ongoing influence on your health behaviours in a way that a diet never can.
2. Take A Bath
According to LifeHack, submerging yourself in water can greatly reduce pain, inflammation and calm overall nervous system. Studies have shown that it can alleviate certain conditions such as osteoarthritis. It's the first thing anyone can do after coming back from work especially when you're under a great deal of stress.
Neil Morris, a psychologist at the University of Wolverhampton, studied 80 candidates who took a bath everyday for 2 weeks, says, "I found that bathing improved general psychological wellness radically. There was a significant drop in feelings of pessimism about the future and increases in hedonic tone, the internal feeling of pleasurability."
So take a bath!
3. Work Out Or Work It Off
Working out is not everyone's cup of tea. We understand that. Many studies have shown that working out helps the body to release a chemical called endorphins. Here's how Wikipedia defines Endorphins.
"Endorphins are endogenous opioid neuropeptides and peptide hormones in humans and other animals. They are produced by the central nervous system and the pituitary gland. The term "endorphins" implies a pharmacological activity as opposed to a specific chemical formulation."
Intense exercises releases endorphins, serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline - these chemicals are sufficient enough to make you feel happy and amazing. Usually after an intense exercise, you would feel a sense of accomplishment and your body will relax a lot better, relieving tension and stress.
4. Improvise And Think Positive When All Else Is Lost
There are many times we had setback, stumbled or failed, and these just seem to look bleak and it's only natural for these negative thoughts to creep in, blinding us from seeing the plausible solution.
Being able to improvise when the times are hard, puts your emotional intelligence to test. However, staying positive in these, almost what seem like an impossible situation means you have already acknowledged that you're in deep trouble and you're working towards a plausible solution.
When you're in a difficult situation, whining about it will NEVER help but worsen, if not, amplifies unnecessary, unrelated issues. It's always better to stay calm, allowing you to bring your thoughts together to come up with a plausible solution.
5. Lastly, Eating Well
I cannot stress this enough. Your body needs food to function and operate on a day-to-day basis, just like a car needs fuel to drive.
"Eating a healthy diet can reduce the negative effects of stress on your body. A healthy diet builds a solid, more enduring foundation for your body by reducing oxidation and inflammation and by helping to reduce weight gain."
Matthew J. Kuchan, Ph.D., A senior research scientist at Abbott.
We all are busy in our lives. Eating healthy is certainly not an easy habit to maintain consistently especially when it clashes with our schedule and very often, dining out is becoming more and more popular when meeting up with friends, colleagues or after you just had your meal, all these contributes to a less healthy diet overall which can have detrimental impact on our energy.
You can start off by preparing food in advance and implement this into your daily routine.
Another way to incentivise yourself in this regime, just remember you're saving money everytime you prepare food from home than to eat out everyday.