One Way To Deal With Negative Thoughts

By Alex Barton

We all know that our emotions affect our physical health and vice versa. We know that stress and depression are associated with poor immune function and disease and that happiness is associated with a strong immune system and longer life. This is because our emotions create certain hormonal states in our body. Negative emotions produce stressful hormones which cause illness and prevent healing and positive emotions produce a state of relaxation in which the body can work well and heal.

How do we create our emotions? By the thoughts that we think! This means that by controlling our thoughts we are able to control the hormonal state of our body. If we are sick then we can use this knowledge to help our bodies to heal. It is difficult when you are ill and therefore naturally feeling low, and it takes effort and practise, but to show you how it works try thinking these two thoughts … concentrate now …

1. “I will never get better. I feel really ill. My life is over. I am a burden on everyone”. Now rate out of ten how thinking those thoughts made you feel.

2. “I am getting better. I can do more this year than I could last year and I’m coping really well in a difficult situation”. Now rate out of ten how thinking those thoughts made you feel.

If you did this exercise correctly then you should have felt much better thinking the second thoughts than the first thoughts (and that was only an exercise) so you can see how you can change the way you feel simply by changing the thoughts that you think. If you doubt the effect of ‘positive thinking’ think on this. The first thought creates stressful hormones which prevents healing. The second thought creates relaxed feelings which encourages healing. So positive thinking can work.

Paying attention to what you are habitually thinking about will help you to identify and reduce the stress caused by your thoughts. Try this exercise which takes time and dedication but is well worth doing. For a week whenever you feel upset or down write down the thoughts you are thinking at the time you are feeling bad. You may find that you think one thought over and over so give it a tick every time you find yourself thinking about it. You may find you are thinking many different thoughts. If you are like most people you will probably look at your list of thoughts at the end of the week and wonder how you manage to keep going with all the lousy things you say to yourself!

Now look at each thought and ask yourself “is this thought true”? “Is it really true”?

Then take an A4 page for each thought. Write at the top of each page “What evidence do I have to support this thought NOT being true?” When you have filled the page until you can’t think of anything else, use the evidence you have come up with to re-frame your original thought into a more balanced, more realistic and more positive thought. Looking at the above examples, the second example could be a more balanced and positive, alternative thought to the first. When you have re-framed that thought, write it down on a small card and keep it in your pocket, because you are going to practise thinking that new, more realistic and optimistic thought every time you catch yourself thinking the old habitual thought.

It takes about thirty days to change a habit (the time it takes for your brain to create a new neurotransmitter supporting a new thought or action) so if you practise that new thought religiously for thirty days you will find it becomes automatic. That reduction in emotional stress will reduce the physical stress on your body. However, it is the sum total of all your thoughts which have an effect on your health, so it may be that you need to change more thoughts than just the one! It will take some effort. It is a challenge for you given your current low state of health. But you can do it and the payback will be massive.

You will reduce the stress you are suffering, break a vicious downward spiral and start to create a positive upward spiral … and you will have taken a very important step towards putting your body into a healing state and regaining your health.