Are you struggling with negative thoughts that are out of your control? Many people who are living with mental health issues deal with negative thoughts as a symptom of their illness. But, that doesn’t mean that intrusive, negative thoughts can’t be managed. Fortunately, there are things you can do to work toward to goal of reducing the frequency of negative thoughts in your life.

Shifting From a Negative to a Positive Mindset

Shifting your mindset isn’t just about picturing the best things that can happen and hoping for them to happen, it’s about shaping the process of our negative thoughts in order to get ahead of them. Our thinking is affected by a number of factors including brain function, outside influences, and behaviors we showcase in order to deal with what happens in our daily lives. So, shaping the way that we perceive things to occur isn’t enough to make lasting changes. Instead, it’s about the process of shifting our mindset from negative to positive rather than focusing on the outcomes. For example, rather than picturing yourself free of negative thoughts and calling it a day, it takes steps including making small goals like changing behaviors that may lead to these thoughts.

Making Small Changes to Thinking Patterns

Changing the perspective of how you think takes time and commitment. This is because making big steps and changes in your lifestyle may be too much to handle and not be effective in making lasting healing. Rather, it begins by making gradual adjustments to your thinking patterns and taking these steps one at a time. It’s a process of identifying a negative thought, accepting it, and recognizing how you can respond to a negative thought in the present moment. Eventually, doing this will help you better understand how to eliminate negative thoughts altogether.

Improving Your Self Talk

One way that can help to give yourself a better, more positive mindset is changing how you think and talk about yourself. When we are negative about ourselves, it’s easier to have a negative mindset. When you’re constantly thinking things like, “I’m not good enough”, “I’ll never be able to accomplish my goals”, etc., you’re going to start to believe it. So, actively pinpointing when you have these negative thoughts and changing what you’re thinking or saying to yourself can help to improve your mindset. A good way to do this is to combat your negative self-thinking with positive ones. And, practicing positive self-talk with yourself (even if you feel silly doing so) by telling yourself what you’re proud of yourself for, that you love yourself, and how you’re thankful to yourself for caring about your needs.

Practicing Combating Negative Thoughts in Treatment

While it’s good to practice combatting negative thinking throughout your daily life, having some guidance in taking the next steps and being provided with accountability in your mindset goals is effective as well. During mental health treatment, a number of things are worked on in order to overcome the debilitating effects of mental health issues, including negative thought patterns. So, if you’re struggling with negative, intrusive thoughts, it may be time to reach out to mental health professionals for help. Help with negative thoughts can include learning about positive coping skills through behavioral therapy, group therapy sessions, and more.

Yellowbrick offers a number of outpatient mental health treatment services that help young adults tackle their issues with intrusive, negative thoughts. Find out more about our services and treatment offerings from our website.