Each year the New York Times WELL blog publishes dozens of wonderful health articles. This year my story on controlling negative thoughts made the Top 10 List of best read stories of 2017. It came in at #6. Yay!
And boy was it a year that called for thought control. Read it again here:
The Year of Conquering Negative Thinking
A quick excerpt:
The first step to stopping negative thoughts is a surprising one. Don’t try to stop them. If you are obsessing about a lost promotion or the results of the presidential election, whatever you do, don’t tell yourself, “I have to stop thinking about this.”
By acknowledging your negative cycle and accepting it, you are on your way to taming your negative thoughts. Acceptance is the basic premise of mindfulness meditation, a practice that helps reduce stress and reactivity. You don’t necessarily have to close your eyes and meditate every day to reap the benefits of mindfulness. You can remind yourself to notice your thoughts in a nonjudgmental manner, without trying to change or alter them right away.
Accepting negative thoughts can also help lessen their weight. Getting mad at yourself for worrying or telling yourself to stop worrying only adds fuel to the negativity fire.
After you’ve accepted a negative thought, force yourself to challenge it.
READ THE ENTIRE PIECE HERE.