How to get rid of bad thoughts: 26 ways to stop thinking negatively

In this article we will look at methods that will help get rid of bad thoughts in your head.

Negative thoughts can be debilitating. They are burdensome, take the joy out of life, and distort your view of reality. Therefore, it is often recommended to replace negative thoughts with positive ones in order to improve any area of your life. This sounds great in theory.

However, in practice, getting rid of bad thoughts is not so easy, especially if there is also a reason to be upset. After all, you can’t stop your negative thinking with the press of a button or the wave of a magic wand. Therefore, in this article we will look at psychological proven tips that will really allow you to get rid of these types of thoughts and close the door to any negativity in your head!

Where do negative thoughts come from?

There are several factors and reasons that provoke destructive thoughts in a person.

Anxiety . Negative thoughts appear when you start to worry that something bad might happen. Or, on the contrary, you think that nothing good will happen to you. This is where your imagination comes in. It paints a vivid picture of your sad future, once you think about the worst case scenario.
Feelings of guilt and regret . All people make mistakes. Negative thinking develops when we constantly remember them and return to the past. We feel embarrassed and ashamed. We get angry and blame ourselves for doing wrong. But this experience is needed in order to draw conclusions and move on.
Increased demands on yourself . Overly self-critical people obsess over their shortcomings. They are unhappy with themselves most of the time. And therefore their thoughts are also predominantly negative.
Problems . Negative thinking forces a person to concentrate on the problems that have arisen. And the person completely forgets about what good he has in life. Destructive thoughts greatly exaggerate the scale of the problem. Instead of thinking about how to cope with difficulties, a person simply becomes depressed.
Dependence on material things . If your happiness depends entirely on having material goods, then you are a negative thinker. There is nothing wrong with wanting more and striving for it. However, when we focus on what we don't have, we become stressed and anxious. Life begins to seem incomplete, although it is worth paying attention to what we already have.
Failures . If you have suffered one failure, then you should not transfer your attitude to the entire situation as a whole. For example, being rejected at an interview does not mean that you will not be able to get a job. Failure is a valuable lesson, not a reason for destructive thinking.

So, negative thoughts arise mainly in two cases:

when we regret past mistakes, think about problems;
when we worry about our future, that everything will go wrong, or we won’t get something.

Such reasoning can greatly harm us.

Favourite buisness

So how can you distract yourself from bad thoughts? There is another method. In this case, a person needs to find something to do that requires maximum concentration. This could be a favorite activity or, conversely, a very difficult task that requires complete concentration. If such a hobby is found, then bad thoughts will automatically fade into the background. Their place will be taken by reflections and ideas on the topic that the person has taken up.

What is your favorite activity? For example, you might want to try puzzles, which are a hobby for many people, or start solving difficult crossword puzzles. Such activities are not burdensome. But they are very good at distracting from bad thoughts. Experts also advise people to repeat their achievements and successes every day, to remember their importance in society. After all, it is precisely from self-doubt that a feeling of fear appears, which provokes the appearance of negative thoughts.

What is the danger

I once came across an interesting comparison. Imagine your mind is like a garden. You look after him. By planting seeds of useful and beautiful plants - positive thoughts, you will receive a rich harvest. As soon as you stop caring for your garden, it will be filled with weeds - negative thoughts. You will no longer have a wonderful harvest.

Our thoughts shape our reality. What we think and feel is what we end up getting.

Destructive thinking causes us great harm.

Attracts negativity into life . Negative thoughts attract bad events into our lives. This is the essence of the law of attraction. If we think bad things, they will definitely happen.
Breaks the psyche . Our thoughts give rise to emotions. Negative thinking causes us to worry, worry, fear, and feel guilty. It aggravates existing problems and distorts the perception of reality. A person who is in the grip of destructive thoughts for a very long time becomes depressed. He develops various nervous disorders. There is a destruction of oneself from within.
It undermines health . People who tend to think negatively often have health problems. And the reason lies precisely in the way of thinking. Scientists have proven that many diseases are psychosomatic in nature, that is, they depend specifically on the internal state of a person and his emotions. For example, as soon as a person gets very nervous, herpes appears on his lips.

It would seem that these are just thoughts, but how much they can harm us. To prevent negative thinking from driving us into depression, let's learn to manage it.

Why do they appear? Main reasons

Understanding the cause of negativity in the mind is the first step towards getting thoughts out of your head. Bad, evil, immoral thoughts do not arise out of emptiness. They always have a source that not only provokes the emergence of such ideas, but also constantly feeds them. This could be a personal negative experience, excessive impressionability when watching the news, or characteristics of one’s own psyche.

Psychologists believe the following factors are the main reasons why negative thoughts and ideas linger in the head:

peculiarities of perception, skepticism, habit of lack of positivity;
low self-esteem;
suspiciousness, suspicion, excessive caution and other similar character traits;
lack of ability to make decisions and desire to take responsibility;
the influence of acquaintances, close people, an abundance of negative information around;
loneliness;
constant stress, forced daily overcoming of one’s own “I”, life in eternal compromise with something, an abundance of unfulfilled fantasies and repressed desires;
emotional shock, personal tragedy.

Each of these factors poses a danger to the human psyche. Even one of them can provoke the emergence and take root of negative thoughts. The combination of several such factors inevitably leads to the development of negative thinking.

How to manage negative thoughts

Many people try in every possible way to get rid of unpleasant thoughts. The simplest thing a person can do is to drive away bad thoughts. Swing them away like an annoying fly. I will say right away that this method is ineffective. On the contrary, it can worsen the situation.

By actively resisting destructive thinking, a person sinks even deeper into it. I want to offer you another way to stop thinking negatively. It will help to completely clear your consciousness and mind from unpleasant and harmful judgments.

Step 1. Realize

As soon as a bad thought arises in your head, accept it. Recognize that it exists and don't try to make it go away. So, instead of actively reacting to the thought, you will simply observe it. And this will make you independent of destructive thinking.

Look at your negative thought from all angles. This may be a productive idea that will help you make the right decision. As a result, you will become more prosperous thanks to it. Or maybe it's one of those harmful thoughts that just ruin your mood and create negative emotions.

If your negative thoughts are caused by concern for your family and friends, then you will not run away from them. Accept them for who they are. But only for a short period of time. You can tell yourself that you really care about your loved one. This is fine. But don't let these thoughts get the better of you.

Step 2. Find the reason

Until you find the reason why a specific negative thought regularly comes to you, you will not get rid of it. Ask yourself the question: “Why do I think this?” Finding the answer will also help you determine whether a negative judgment is true or false. At this point, you can either accept this negative thought or let it go forever. It's up to you to decide.

Step 3. Replace negative with positive

You have already learned to separate negative thoughts that spoil your well-being from constructive ones. At this stage, you need to replace negative reasoning with positive ones. After all, it is positive thinking that helps us achieve goals and improves our internal state. And it’s just nice to think about something good.

Now the problem cannot ruin your mood and life. Feel free to break it down into specific tasks and complete them gradually. We solved the problem and became happier.

So, when you find yourself thinking like, “I'm worthless! Life is passing me by!”, immediately change it to the opposite: “I am a unique and unusual person! Everything is ahead of me!” Do you think it won't work? It will work! You cannot think about both bad and good at the same time. Take away the power of a negative thought over you. Let there be only positivity in your mind and in your reality.

Proper nutrition

It is drinking and food that give us the resources and strength to exist. An unbalanced diet, hunger or lack of fluid depletes the body and leads to fatigue. It is she who creates the conditions for worry even about a minor matter. Therefore, it is important to eat healthy food and drink healthy drinks (fresh drinks, freshly squeezed juices, compotes, green tea and clean water). In moments of sadness, you should treat yourself to food antidepressants: chocolate, raisins, bananas, hazelnuts and whatever you like. Psychologists say that delicious food also drives away bad thoughts.

Methods of dealing with negativity

Negative judgments do not appear out of nowhere. We have already found out the reasons that provoke them. Fighting thoughts without eliminating the cause is ineffective. We must eliminate the negativity within ourselves, because it gives rise to negative judgments. I offer you several effective methods.

Affirmations

Affirmations are special phrases that set a person up for a positive wave, which he pronounces to himself. By saying affirmations every day, you become more confident in yourself, attract positivity and don’t let problems get the better of you.

Affirmations are effective not only in difficult periods, but also in any life situations when everything seems to be fine. The more often you tell yourself pleasant, life-affirming phrases, the faster you will believe it.

There are a huge number of affirmations for women, for men, to attract good luck, prosperity, health, love, etc. Here are examples of affirmations:

I am irresistible, radiate positivity and look great;
luck accompanies me in everything;
I am a healthy, happy and successful person;
I am a wonderful specialist and receive decent remuneration;
I am full of love and open to new relationships.

You can come up with similar inspiring and motivating phrases for yourself. They will help you improve your self-esteem. On our website you will also find an article about how to love yourself.

Work and hobbies

Bad thoughts love to visit us in our free time or when we are alone. And they have no chance at all if we are passionate about the matter. Work distracts us from negative thoughts. To overcome negativity, you need to constantly be busy with something. Then there will be no time left for unpleasant thoughts.

In the evening, make yourself an action plan for the whole next day. By completing planned tasks, you will not only take your mind off heavy thoughts, but also increase your own self-worth. Checking off items on your to-do list will clearly demonstrate that you have already done a lot and achieved a lot.

Meditation

Meditation helps you find peace and get rid of negativity. You immerse yourself in your consciousness, focus on feelings and thoughts, and disconnect from the outside world. Thanks to meditation, you will learn to abstract yourself from problems, cope with resentment, irritation, and anxiety.

To start meditating, you need to create a favorable environment. It is best to do this alone and in complete silence so that extraneous sounds or people do not bother you. You can turn on special music for meditation. It will help you relax and calm down.

The simplest meditation technique is to sit cross-legged, close your eyes, and breathe deeply. Repeat deep inhalations and slow exhalations until your heart rate slows and your thoughts calm down.

Then imagine that you are all alone in a place where there is not a single soul. It could be a forest, a desert, a mountain peak, or a seashore. There you feel secluded and peaceful. Now imagine how all negative thoughts leave you and remain there. At this time, you slowly return to the real world. To achieve complete immersion, you need to practice as often as possible.

Let's distract ourselves correctly

How to distract yourself from bad thoughts? When a person starts thinking about something negative, he should immediately try to switch.

To do this, it is recommended to remember the happiest, funniest moment in life, your favorite joke, phrase, or watch funny films (for example, “Groundhog Day”, “And in my heart I’m dancing”, “Neighbors. On the Warpath-2”, “The Simpleton”, "Third wheel"). In this way, a huge number of people are saved from depression. The main thing is to distract yourself from negative thoughts in time, eradicating them. It is much easier to solve a problem when it is just beginning than to try to eliminate the consequences of daily torment with negative thinking.

Techniques for getting rid of negative thoughts

Working on thinking requires a lot of effort. I found several interesting techniques that will help you learn not to focus on the negative at the initial stage.

Rubber

This technique helps you control yourself and your thinking. Put a bracelet or elastic band on your hand. As soon as you catch yourself in a negative thought, change the bracelet to your other hand. Or you can pull back the rubber band and snap your wrist.

Aquarium

Imagine that your thoughts are fish in an aquarium. Bad thoughts swim in the form of ugly, ugly fish, and good thoughts swim in the form of bright and colorful fish. It's like you're watching them from the outside. Which fish do you prefer to look at? I am sure that they are smart, beautiful and active. So, fill the aquarium of your consciousness with colorful fish that are pleasing to the eye.

Deferred Thoughts

Do bad thoughts haunt you and prevent you from falling asleep? Tell yourself that you will think about it later - for example, tomorrow. Your brain will accept this command and actually put aside unpleasant thoughts. And then, you see, he will completely forget to remind you about them.

Description

Put your negative thoughts on paper. Write as detailed and colorful as possible what you think and feel. Your experiences will leave you and settle on a piece of paper. You won't return to them as often. After all, these arguments have already become history, and therefore remain in the past. To part with them forever, you can even burn what you wrote.

Confusing

Bad thoughts can and should be confused. The wonderful word “but” will help you with this. For example: “I was rejected again. Nothing works out for me... But I have a fashionable jacket!” Even the smallest positive moments can confuse a whole stream of negative judgments. Finding the good things in yourself won't be easy at first. But over time, it will become a habit for you and doing it will be fun and funny.

Varied life

How to deal with a bad mood? To prevent negative thoughts from appearing in your head, you should diversify your life, filling it with all sorts of interesting activities and colorful emotions. For example, go to cinemas more often, watch funny films, visit clubs, go on various tourist trips, and so on.

You should also stay away from people who cause discomfort, and, conversely, communicate with those who are able to please and give a good mood.

Psychologist's advice

Here are some more tips from psychologists that will help you take your mind off bad thoughts.

Surround yourself with positive people. We adopt the behavior of the people we interact with. By communicating with pessimists, you will also become a pessimist. And destructive thinking will become the norm for you. Communicate with optimists and gain positive energy from them.
Tell a loved one about what worries and concerns you. He will listen to you, support you and, perhaps, suggest the right solution to the problem. Psychologists say that sometimes simply expressing your thoughts in a comfortable environment is enough for negative judgments to leave you. This is especially true for women who just need to talk it out.
Use deep breathing techniques when you feel overwhelmed by negative thoughts. Take a deep breath to the count of 4 and exhale equally deeply. This will help you calm down and relax.
Exercise regularly. Mental and physical health are inextricably linked. Sport helps relieve stress, get rid of tension, and promotes the production of endorphins. And a person in whose body happiness hormones predominate will no longer think destructively.
Listen to your favorite music that makes you feel good. Music has a strong influence on our mood. A perky tune, a cheerful rhythm - and now you are smiling, and all bad thoughts have gone away.
Focus on what is happening in the present moment. Negative reasoning is either related to the past (regret, guilt) or to the future (fear that something will go wrong or not work out). During such thoughts, you lose touch with the present. I really like the phrase from the cartoon “Kung Fu Panda”: “The past is forgotten, the future is closed, the present is granted.”
Thank fate for all the good things in your life, for every day you live. Find joy in small things: sunlight, birdsong, children's laughter, beautiful flowers, etc. Once you understand and feel that happiness is very close - inside you, you will no longer dwell on the negative.

I recommend that you watch a short video in which a young man talks about how he managed to cope with obsessive bad thoughts.

Positive music

Scientific research has proven that you can drown out bad thoughts with the help of a pleasant melody. Therefore, determine for yourself the best music channel or wave on the radio, and also create a playlist of positive songs in your gadget. As soon as you feel that disturbing thoughts are penetrating your consciousness, turn on loud music and cheer yourself up.

Useful training programs for those who want to get rid of negativity in their heads

I bring to your attention two very cool courses that have collected a lot of positive reviews on the Internet. They help not only to easily get rid of negative thoughts, but also to develop intelligence.

Brain fitness for men and women

Description. When you buy a course on brain fitness, the administration of the Vikium website sends you by mail a specialized device called a “neural interface”. It is needed to analyze the state of your brain and select personal advice and recommendations for you.

The neural interface remains with you forever, you can use it for many years in a row. After this little device counts the electromagnetic waves emanating from your head, it will send them to Vikium, where the data will be analyzed in detail (automatically), and then you will receive instructions for action.

The brain fitness course itself is aimed, on the one hand, at getting rid of all the bad thoughts in your head, at combating stress and nervousness, and on the other, at developing thinking and various other useful qualities. Exercises and free online simulators will help increase your level of attention, improve memory, and imagination.

Authors: developers of the Vikium project.

Cost: 12,990 rub.

Find out more and sign up for training

If you don’t want to buy the course, but you like the neural interface, you can purchase it separately. The thing is, however, not cheap - 1,990 rubles.

Brain Detoxification

Description. Brain detoxification is already aimed only at getting rid of negativity. We are not talking about brain development here.

Victor Shiryaev, who is teaching this course, will offer you several practical techniques, exercises and simulators that will help you easily get rid of all the bad thoughts that are spinning in your head or appear there after some events, communicating with unpleasant people, and so on.

When you complete the training and complete all the practical tasks, you will easily get rid of the negative in your head and switch from bad to good. Friends and family will notice a change in you and feel that it has become much more interesting and easier to communicate with you.

Authors: Victor Shiryaev.

Cost: 1,490 rub.

Find out more and sign up for training

These are the two most popular courses. Do you know other programs? Tell us about them in the comments, I will add to the article.

Reduction to the Absurd

You can try the completely opposite technique. On the contrary, you need to completely immerse yourself in bad thoughts and consider what bad things could happen as a result. It is most effective to imagine the most ridiculous, absurd situations. Use your imagination, use exaggeration, make your thoughts vivid.

For example, you need to pass an important interview. It is clear that many people have bad thoughts at such moments. Imagine in vivid colors what kind of failure might await you. The head of the HR department, as soon as he sees your resume, starts screaming loudly and throwing tomatoes. You decide to escape such shame and run out of the office. But then the cleaning lady throws a wet rag at you because you trampled the entire floor. Out of surprise, you fall, get up and run again. And then you are kidnapped by aliens and taken to another planet.

Absurd, isn't it? But it is precisely this kind of exaggeration that takes away the power of negative thoughts. You just have to try it to be convinced of the effectiveness of the technique.