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Overcome Negative Thinking: Take Charge of Your Thoughts
How to develop the mental habits of presence, patience and kindness to overcome the negativity bias that robs you of happiness
“We do not know what a thought is, yet we’re thinking them all the time.” — Ani Tenzin Palmo
Here’s a typical thought pattern when I feel very angry:
“Why would they do this to me?! I cannot take this anymore. It makes me furious! I just want to be left in peace. Why does it keep happening? I failed to keep my calm again — not great.”
For the sake of propriety, I took out all the f-bombs. But what remains is a lot of judgment, self-victimizing, and focusing on how I believe things should be.
This is a typical mental pattern I engage in when faced with what I perceive to be someone’s disapproval or disrespect. This is not a one-off occurrence. It tends to be rather automatic, repetitive reaction to certain feelings and circumstances. It’s one of the many mental habits of mine.
When a bad mental habit like this takes over, it usually makes me feel even worse.