Select Page
7 Easy Ways To Overcome Negative Thoughts

7 Easy Ways To Overcome Negative Thoughts

by | Life and Success

I'm sure this is coming as a huge shock to you. Huge! You must be curious about this big, shocking news that I'm sure will knock your socks off. The answer? Your negative thoughts are affecting your happiness. I know, right? Mind-blowing. JK. While we all know this information isn't shocking news, it can still be a daily hurdle to overcome.
It's not surprising that we all have negative thoughts. We're human, after all. But if our negative thoughts get in the way of our happiness, we need to do something about it.

And on top of that, those negative thoughts keep you stuck. And I'm not stopping there; they may even make you wear the poor me badge.

But that's not all they do. They leave you feeling sorry for yourself in all kinds of situations in life.

Hey, I'm not throwing any stones. Because I know myself and my nature, and I can also get caught in those negative thoughts.

So let's go ahead and break down some of the different ways that we can get out of that negative thought process.

Furthermore, if you are the one wearing the poor me badge. I want to ask you to remove it and stop thinking that way.

That's why today, let's discuss seven ways to kick that negativity to the curb and say goodbye to it once and for all.

One. Tell Yourself to Stop It

Don't you wish you could overcome negative thoughts altogether? Basically, when you catch yourself in those negative thoughts, I want you to say, Stop it. That's not true.

Then I want you to go ahead and back it up with all the reasons why that negative thought is not true. Because I'm sure, you have evidence in your life to show otherwise.

What is that past evidence? How is this not true at all?

Two. Journal to the root cause

You're gonna move ahead and break down that negative thought. In other words, get a piece of paper and begin drilling down into that negative thought. Journal until you figure out your root cause and what's causing it. Do this by asking, “What else” to get to the root.

I want you to write down that negative thought that you're having. Then I want you to journal on why you are having this thought.

What is triggering this thought? How does it make you actually feel? And what else could you think of instead?

Three. Talk to someone

For me, when I'm having a bad day, I talk to my sister. Yes, I know my sister, not my husband. I always do. We have crazy similar girl thinking. Truly it is crazy how much we think alike. And I know she will have the exact words to say to me to kick me out of that negative thinking pattern. As a result, I pick up my phone and send her a Marco Polo.

Letting go of all my thoughts and feelings circling in my head. All those thoughts and feelings cause that negative thought pattern.

Four. Get some fresh air

Okay, so this next idea here, I will admit that I enjoy this one so much more during the warmer months than the colder ones. This is because I live in Iowa, and it's cold outside. I'm not one for cold weather.

But getting outside for some fresh air. Either a walk or run is still the most effective way to clear that negative thought pattern. Calm the rumbling in your head.

As a matter of fact, this method happens to also be Bo and Saylor's favorite way for me to overcome my negative thoughts. Get your walking shoes, your earbuds, and your favorite happy, upbeat playlist.

There's nothing like fresh air and a good playlist to clear those negative thoughts. And if your negative thoughts are really bad, you may need to play the Happy song on repeat. 

Michele Duwe from Miss Task Overcoming Negative Thoughts

Five. Be Grateful

All things considered, be grateful and count your blessings. When you think of all the things you're thankful for to help you overcome your negative thoughts.

Do this out loud, and say out loud to yourself all the things you're thankful for.

What is the complete list of all the things you're grateful for in your life? You can put anything on your list, no matter how big or small. If you've been around for a while, you know coffee and the freedom to drink it are on the list of things that I'm thankful for.

Six. Get Out Of Your Head To Overcome Your Negative Thoughts

The next idea for you to overcome your negative thoughts is to get out of your own head.

In my case, I like the insight timer because I am able to overcome my own negative thinking by getting out of my head.

Simply do a quick search inside the Insight Timer on negative thoughts. As you can see, it will bring up various results such as music or meditations with varying lengths of time. Whatever you need to actually get out of your negative thoughts, get out of your own head.

Ugh, we can be our own worst enemies sometimes. Am I right about that?

https://insighttimer.com/

Seven. Kindness to Overcome Negative Thoughts

I love this next one. And that's doing something thoughtful for somebody else to brighten their day.

Given your current state, go ahead and turn your attention to somebody else. What can you do to brighten up their day? If you could do one thing to brighten up someone else's day, what would it be? Is it sending them flowers? Thinking back to sending flowers to my Grandma. Knowing it brightened her day always made me happy and cheerful.

What is something kind you can do for somebody else? A random act of kindness is sure to totally kick that overwhelming negative thinking to the curb. Trust me when I say it will help you overcome that negative thinking within no time.

l

Little Side Note

We are a product of our beliefs. Combat your biggest negative thought with a positive affirmation or mantra. How are you able to change the words that you say to yourself? Belief in yourself and your service is a daily commitment. 

Bonus: Cuddle With A Pet

While I was planning to keep it to seven, here's one quick bonus tip as well. If you have a puppy. There is nothing like cuddling time on the sofa with your pet to feel happy and overcome those negative thoughts.

The 7 plus one way to overcome negative thoughts are:

  • Tell Yourself to Stop It
  • Journal to the root cause
  • Talk To Someone You Trust
  • Get Some Fresh Air
  • Be Grateful
  • Get Out Of Your Head
  • Brighten Someone Else's Day
  • Cuddle With A Pet

Thank you so much for reading. I appreciate you. I'd love to hear in the comments if you have any other ideas on things that you do to overcome negative thoughts. I hope you have a wonderful week.

7 habits to improve your productivity (and life)

7 habits to improve your productivity (and life)

by | Life and Success, Planning-Organization-Productivity

I’d like to say that I live a productive life; why that’s important to me because time is our most valuable resource. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again today. What can you do in your day-to-day to feel as if you’re living a productive and satisfying life? Let’s chat about seven habits to improve your productivity and life.

Habit One: Track Your Time to improve your productivity

Why is this important? Tracking your time allows you the ability to look back and know where your time is spent. You must be wondering, what’s the advantage of tracking your time?

Let me tell you, keeping tabs on where your precious time is going allows you to see your patterns.

When you are the most focused or distracted.

Even better, when you know where your time is going, you can answer the question, what did I do today?

You’ll know if the items you’re spending your time on are moving you forward in your life or distracting you from feeling as if you're living a satisfying life.

Habit Two: Create Systems to improve your productivity

The point here is that creating systems helps you eliminate the number of decisions you have to make, stop procrastination, and possibly even an overwhelming amount of sticky notes with random thoughts and tasks.

I can almost hear you thinking, create systems. What does that even mean? Systems are finding easier ways to do things.

For example, create a system around meal planning. By far, this is one of my favorite systems that I’ve created. Recipes new and old are gathered in Notion. When I’m on Pinterest and discover a recipe I want to try, it goes into Notion under my Recipes. The name begins with **New**, allowing me to quickly find new recipes I want to try.

Once I make the dinner, I ask everyone to rate the recipe on a scale of 1 to 5. If the recipe average score is three or higher, it will be assigned to a week in my meal planning.

As I said, this is one of my favorite systems because, at the end of the day, the last decision I want to make is what’s for dinner.

Oh, and I should mention that meal planning is done mostly on Sundays.

Let me walk you through one more system. Everything has its place, whether that be a physical item or information.

I’m not as bad as I used to be, but I love my label maker. Label the home for the physical items around your house. Let me elaborate; it’s not enough to label the home. After all, the item must be put away for the system to work properly.

Besides physical items, having a system for information is also important. I’m a big pen and paper person. Doubtedly, information will gather up in my bullet journal. Not everything needs to be kept; however, what does goes into Notion for safekeeping. Once it has been put into Notion, it will be noted in my Bullet Journal with a / on the page number. The page number will be crossed out with an X if it's not needed.

Habit Three: Create Lists for a Productive Life

Accordingly, the next area to improve your productivity is with lists. Not only writing the lists but knowing where you put the list. In truth, you’re not very productive if you spend too much time looking for your lists.

Lists include not only your to-do list, but also you’re not-to-do list. Let me guess, you know what I’m talking about, the not-to-do list of things to delegate. Or perhaps a list of reasons why you’re not eating sugary treats. Yes, this is a true not-to-do list. What type of not-to-do list will you create?

While this one will require your family to get on board, it will improve your productivity. Without a doubt, using Google Keep (my husband doesn’t have an iPhone) for a family shopping list.

Stick with me here; you’re out running errands, and pop into the grocery store to get a few things you know you need to pick up for dinner. Your running grocery list is hanging on the side of the fridge; no one is home to tell you what’s on the list. So you stand in the aisle racking your brain, trying to remember, do we still need ketchup? C’mon, I can’t be the only one.

That’s why having your shopping list in Google Keep or something similar helps to improve your productivity and cut down on buying things you may not actually need. Does it take a bit of training for your family, yup and it’s worth the effort!

Habit Four: Map Out Your Work to Improve Your Productivity

Your time is valuable; we’ve already covered that. Therefore, not having a map of the work that needs to be done will cause you to be unproductive, procrastinate, and possibly miss deadlines.

When you map out your work in advance, you’ll know when you need to do something and when you need to ask others for items they are responsible for.

To put it another way, create a project plan for your big and little projects. David Allen’s book Getting Things Done states that anything with more than one task is considered a project.

If you struggle with chucking your work down, start with the big items and break them down from there.

Michele from Miss Task 7 habits to improve your productivity (and life)

Habit Five: Improve Your Productivity with Daily Goals

What are your top three, or create good, better, best goals if you’d like to look at it from that standpoint?

Let me explain; it would be a good day if you did ______. What is one goal? If you achieve that today you’d be happy. This one should be totally achievable.

Next, what would be a better goal? It would be a better day if you did ____ and ____. What are two goals that, if you achieve, you’d be excited?

Finally, what would be the best goal? It would be the best day if you did ____, ____ and ____. What are three goals that, if you achieved them, would be the BEST day?

Here’s an example, let’s say you’re working on drinking more water. Because water is good for your brain and your productivity, a good goal, drink 1 quart of water in the first hour you're awake.

A better goal may be to have 3 quarts of water drank by 3 pm.

The best goal would be to have 4 quarts of water drank by 6 pm.

Habit Six: Batch Like Items to Improve Your Productivity

In reality, I’m sure this is not a new one. When you batch like an item, it improves your productivity because you’re not bouncing from one thing to another thing.

You’re keeping your brain focused on one thing. When batching, using focus music with headphones keeps you from getting distracted by all the noises going on around you.

What tasks could you batch to improve your productivity?

These include setting a timer for social media engagement, batching and scheduling your social media post, and creating your pillar content.

Find Balance Free Workbook

Download Your Copy Today

A 34-page guide to help you figure out what's off in your life and how to find balance.

Habit Seven: Schedule a Hard Stop for a Productive Life

Set boundaries around your time to improve your productivity. Schedule hard stops, that regardless of what you’re doing, you must stop at this time.

This is one that I personally struggle with; not going to lie to you. If I’m on a roll, it can be difficult for me to stop in the middle of it. If this is the case, I look at what I can adjust to keep going.

Or, if it’s the end of the day, is what I’m working on more important than my daily exercise? Because I know myself, I tend to have wiggle room at the end of my day. For example, I schedule one hour to get ready; however, I know that if I absolutely need to, I could take a shower and get ready in twenty minutes. At the moment, I’ll get to choose what’s more important.

While I could go on with a few more ideas to improve your productivity, I’ll end it here.

If you like this be sure to watch here Time Wasters | Be Mindful Of Your Time

Or

read it here…. Time Wasters | Be Mindful Of Your Time

  1. Track Your Time
  2. Create Systems
  3. Create Lists
  4. Map Out Your Work
  5. Set Daily Goals
  6. Batch Like Tasks
  7. Schedule a Hard Stop