Being stuck in automatic negative thoughts can be mentally exhausting. We have between 20,000 and 60,000 thoughts a day, but only about 5% of these are spent on the task in hand. The rest is ‘noise’, and a good deal of that is infested with automatic negative thoughts or ANTs.
Learning to bring your thoughts back to the present moment is key. Visual, aural, physical, kinaesthetic and creative mindfulness exercises can help, such as going for a mindful walk, using the NOW technique to Notice, Observe and Wonder, or writing a gratitude journal.
Stop catastrophising
Try shifting your perspective to keep the ANTs at bay. We all fall prey to cognitive bias and one of the most common is the tendency to catastrophise. There are, of course, situations where terrible things do happen. But, we also often have a habit of sweating the small stuff, and see comparatively ‘trivial’ situations as worse than they are.
Write down positives
Shifting your perception of yourself can be powerful. For a week, write down the negative self-talk that comes to your mind. Beside each negative phrase, write the opposite – the positive equivalent. Don’t worry if you don’t believe it yet, still write it down. After a week, choose a few to change, and develop a positive affirmation for each, and repeat those sentences to yourself each day. It works best if it’s present tense – ‘I am…’ rather than ‘I will be…’ and avoid double negatives, such as ‘I am not afraid of spiders.’
Keep doing mindful exercises
Integrating mindful walking into your daily life is a great way to do this. When we do the same journey every day, it’s likely that we won’t notice much about it. When was the last time you were aware of your surroundings? The sights, the sounds, the smells? If other thoughts come into your head, acknowledge them and return to focused observing. A functional walk becomes a restorative event.
We all have a tendency to dwell on the past, and to replay situations in our mind that cannot be changed. We also spend a vast amount of time worrying about the future or more accurately potential futures. But if we can adjust this perspective, we can utilise this time and energy better. What helps you stay present?
