PERSEVERANCE & MENTAL HEALTH
How To Push Through The Negativity In Your Life
All you need to learn is one skill that you already possess.
“If you are going through hell, keep going.”
― Winston S. Churchill
Our lives are filled to the brim with anxieties of countless sorts. And yet, you are still expected to wake up early in the mornings and start your day. You may be going through trauma, processing grief, battling stress, or depression, or maybe you have a simple case of generalized anxiety. All of these are treatable to some extent through medicine. However, there is one method that will not only aid your well-being but build your strength as a person.
Positivity.
Every single person is capable of overcoming the negativity in their life. Every single person is also able to develop a positive outlook on their life. This is, of course, done through practice a forced repetition.
It’s not going to come easily. But there is no great reward without great struggle. You may feel defeated by this. I can understand, changing your whole outlook on life is not an easy thing to do.
I struggle deeply with OCD. This produces anxieties and depressive moods fairly regularly, as is common with my condition. I saw the world through a monochromatic lens.
The things that came to me, I took for granted. I ignored positivity in a subconscious attempt at self-sabotage. And it is very likely you do that you are doing the same.
Depressive thoughts are very attractive to our minds. They’re easy to reason and even easier to conjure. Our minds are naturally programmed to process threat. It’s a simple survival instinct. The more reflexive a rabbit is, the safer he will be. Right?
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
― Confucius
When a negative thought pops into your head, immediately ignore it. It’ll be hard, and you’ll probably fail. I still fail, from time to time. When I fail to ignore these intrusive and deconstructive negative thoughts, my best strategy is to immediately follow them up with a positive thought that goes directly against the previous negative thought.
“I look ugly today. I hate the way I feel and I know I am going to fail.”
Whoops, I shouldn’t have thought that about myself. It’s untrue and misleading.
“I look great today. I don’t feel as awesome as usual, but I know myself and I know that I will succeed.”
The purpose of the above exercise is to assert confidence in your positive thoughts. We are all bombarded with advice telling us to have confidence in ourselves, but rarely are we told of the importance of having confidence in our thoughts and actions.
Stay positive, and push forward. Life will do everything in its power to push you back, but it’s up to you to put up a fight. This is a fight you can win, and winning this fight will gift you with invaluable rewards.
