Why is the bad stuff always easy to believe?
Why is it that all the negative, unproductive and sometimes hostile thoughts we have are always easier to believe than the positive, life enhancing and encouraging? You know the voices that say ‘this won’t work’ or ‘that will never happen’, the images of future events not turning out the way you would like them to, or possibly not happening at all. They all seem so believable and real!
The reality is of course much different, theoretically (at least) it is just as easy to believe that your future will be filled with everything you so desire. But it sometimes appears that we are a little bit more certain that our future won’t develop as we would like or contain the things we want to have.
This doesn’t happen for everybody but it probably happens to a lot of people. Reluctance to believe you will have what you want, that you can have what you want or that you even deserve what you want can be a real road block to achieving anything.
Now there could be many reasons why we ‘choose’ to believe what we believe, but it may be worth spending time to find out why YOU are choosing to believe the negative stuff.
Are any of the following applicable for you?
If I believe negative stuff it means I won’t be surprised when I fail I have a poor self image so it’s impossible to believe good things I have no choice in the matter, this is what I tell myself and that is all there is to it
If I look back on my life it is only bad things that have happened to me, so that is probably what will happen in the future. Believing I will be successful means I will have to work at making them happen and I’m lazy
Of course all of these might be true and then none of them may be true, it depends on your own circumstances, but whether you believe them or not, do they answer the question of why it seems easier to believe negative rather than positive things about yourself? Even if they did provide answers would you they satisfy you?
A lot of the time it depends on mood, generally if you are upbeat and feeling good you tend to gravitate towards a more optimistic and healthy view of the world, and in particular your role in it. Whereas when you are feeling low or depressed a cloud of doom can dampen your entire world and thus cause you to feel down and negative.
But does it really depend on mood or is there more to it?
I think that if you are feeling down then you have to address those reasons why you are feeling low which in turn should help with removing your negativity.
If you are continually believing that nothing good will ever happen to you, then it could be an indication of a more serious issue, (depression) and worthy of more attention.
One thing is certain, it is very hard to make any progress on goals, aspirations or anything else when you are wallowing in a sea of negativity. Nothing gets done, predominately because too much of your time is spent feeling down and thinking unhelpful, unconstructive thoughts.
When you get into a spiral of feeling low sometimes it is hard to break out of it. Time can sometimes be a great healer but unfortunately time is a commodity that we don’t have a lot of, especially when you are working towards goals you have already set yourself.
So when you wake up each morning, whilst eating breakfast and getting dressed, also spend some time thinking a few positive thoughts about your life and the day ahead. After all it takes just as much time and energy to think negative thoughts as it does positive ones.
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