Your mental health can dictate the path of how various things will go in your life. That’s why you should always remember that it’s crucial to not only take good care of yourself physically but mentally. With a surplus of all kinds of gym advertisements and promotion of physical health everywhere, it’s easy to forget that mental health is just as essential in your daily life.
However, at times, it can be more challenging than you’d think to control the negative thoughts that may be lingering around in your mind. Whether it’s the harsh feedback you have received from work or an argument with a close relative, you should remember to prioritize your mental health and ensure that you’re able to deal with a spectrum of negative emotions that may arise.
You should remember that negative things may come your way, and you should face them with a mindset that will allow you to overcome them.
What is the Subconscious Mind?
Many people have been exposed to this term already in their lives, but what is the subconscious mind precisely? Well, the exact definition would take us pages to explain, but to put it in simple terms, a subconscious mind is a powerful force within our brain, generating 95% of the decisions we make.
It is responsible for controlling most decisions undertaken by us, such as how we speak, eat, and function on a daily basis. Our subconscious mind also allows us to use our imagination, form habits, feel emotions, have specific values, form generalizations, and provide us with the ability of a long term memory.
We utilize the ‘features’ of our subconscious minds every second of the day, without even realizing that we’re doing it. Things such as breathing, digestion, memories, and feelings are just a variety of things our subconscious mind is responsible for doing, and we don’t necessarily realize when we’re doing it.
Conscious Mind
On the other hand, our conscious mind is responsible for around 5% of our brain functions, and it is utilized for the purposeful tasks we undertake. Our conscious mind is responsible for short-term memory, willpower, and critical thinking. Still, in the world of mental health, it is also highly responsible for making you aware of things that are going on. This emotional mind can quickly become a gateway for negative, intrusive thoughts that you may greatly overthink and lead to the deterioration of your mental health.
How to Get Rid of Negative, Intrusive Thoughts
Negative thoughts that seem to never leave your brain are something that everybody struggles with. The key thing is to understand how to deal with them in a way that allows you to get back on track with your life as soon as possible. Here are some useful pointers that will surely help you understand and get rid of these thoughts.
Understand their Origin
To solve any mechanical problems, you most often need to find their source. The same goes for your mindset. If you’re bothered by some negative thoughts, try finding their origin, which will lead you to understand why they might be causing more stress on you than necessary. It’s important to realize that you might be just overthinking something — learning the origin of where your thoughts are arising from might help you relieve them.
Talk to Someone
Sometimes all you need to do to clear your mind is to express your thoughts to someone else. It might be a good friend of yours, or it might be a therapist; whoever you feel most comfortable talking to, you should be able to convey your thoughts and let them out. Sometimes what can be causing you extra stress is keeping something to yourself, and expressing it might be a cathartic way of coping with it. It may also be an excellent way for someone to understand you and help you find the route of anything you’re going through.
Distract Yourself
Maybe the solution to your less than desired thoughts is to get away from them for a while. We’re not telling you to avoid the underlying problem, as fear of facing the origin of the problem is one of the worst things you can do in a situation as such. However, finding an activity that will make you forget about what’s happening in your mind for a while can drastically improve your self-esteem, and make you realize that whatever is going through your mind might not be as serious as you thought it is.
Meditate
Meditation has shown to be a stress reliever, so why not give it a try? It has been observed that through meditation, you’re relieving your nervous system. This activity can make you much more calm and balanced and help you forget and eliminate negative intrusive thoughts. You might discover that by meditating, you realize the things you might have been stressing about are not that serious. The new zen you’ll find might make it more comfortable to digest specific difficulties in your life and let you handle them calmly.
Change of Lifestyle
Sometimes all a person needs is change. Your current lifestyle choices might be causing you some extra stress, so maybe the way to go is to let go of some things that may be impacting your life. Whether it’s changing your job or changing your friend group, those aspects may play a vital role in how much intrusive thoughts are in your life.
Conclusion
In order to enjoy your life to the fullest and minimize any stress you encounter, make sure you know how to handle any negative thoughts that arise in your life. It’s normal for all of us to feel overwhelmed with our own thoughts, perceptions, and negativities that may have occurred along the way. Still, you need to remember that some things cannot be prevented, so you should focus on how you approach any situations that occurred, instead of trying to prevent them.
Photo by Andreas Weiland on Unsplash
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