Do you wake up every day with negative thoughts?

Is there something recurring that disturbs your peace of mind?

This article is for you if you only see the problems rather than the opportunities.

What happens to you happens to more people, even if you see them smiling on Instagram. Detoxifying the mind of negative thoughts is a priority. We live surrounded by hyper-stimuli.

From the time we wake up until we go to bed, we use social media, video games, and Netflix. We are addicted to the dopamine released in our brains when we get a short-term reward.

This lifestyle weakens us, makes us apathetic and lazy, and when you lose focus, you start having toxic thoughts.

That’s why, in today’s article, I will get straight to the point by explaining five simple steps you can take to detoxify your mind and improve your quality of life.

Let’s get started.

1. Stop resisting change

You cause the residual pain of what is happening to you.

Don’t get me wrong: not the pain itself, but the underlying pain. That is, the pain generated by what is troubling you so much.

Whatever the problem you’re facing, it is what it is, and not because you get anxious, you’ll solve it sooner. The opposite is true. The longer the tantrum, the anger, the later you’ll get to work and solve the problem.

Drop the drama. Imagine you’re in a boxing match. The punches hurt, but if you want to hit back, you must recover as soon as possible, or your opponent won’t stop hitting you until the bell rings.

This applied to life means that the longer you get on your guard, the more blows you will receive from life. Hence, sayings such as a thin dog are all fleas; there are no two without three, or misfortunes never come alone.

When something happens to us that unbalances us and takes away our sleep and tranquility, that something overcomes us and weakens us, turning us into an automaton or a zombie.

That’s why it’s hard to anticipate problems. Because we are not at one hundred percent of our capabilities. And that is when we stumble upon all kinds of situations that make our initial problem a snowball that continues to grow.

So… accept that life gave you a blow. And that this blow necessarily hurts and will change you. Because every problem that is big enough changes your life so that you transcend that situation.

Understand that you will have to modify habits and behaviors and acquire new habits and capabilities to get out of your hole.

2. Change the environment

Analyze your closest environment because, as I always say, you can only be harmed by people close to you, those who do not know you at all, have nothing against you, and not knowing that you exist does not harm you.

However, the closest people. Even if they love us, they can be doing us a lot of harm with possessive or toxic behaviors.

So stop them and avoid their influence on you, limiting the time you spend with them.

As for the virtual environment, take paper and pencil. For a week, write down what you do every day in your digital environment and write down what you do, how long you do it, and why you sincerely believe you do it.

For example, YouTube videos of Conspiracy and mysteries make me feel less lonely, Instagram photos of beautiful people that make me feel inferior for so long. Facebook photos of my ex and his status updates for so long, and Netflix series that make me stay up late and not get enough sleep for so long.

Once the week is over, review the paper and reflect on how those activities you wrote down make you feel.

Continuing with our example,

• Seeing pictures of my ex makes me feel bad.
• Seeing pictures of beautiful people with idyllic lives on Instagram makes me feel inferior.
• Watching Netflix calms me down but makes me sleep a little and wake up exhausted
• YouTube entertains me and makes me disconnect.

After analysis, act on it.

People act on the effects. And you have to do it on the causes.

• Keep using YouTube if it makes you feel good.
• Limit the chapters you watch on Netflix every day to sleep better.
• Stop seeing pictures of your ex on Facebook.
• Quit torturing yourself with beautiful people on Instagram.

And your mind will reduce the number of negative thoughts accumulating and making you feel shitty.

If you remedy the causes, you stop suffering the symptoms.

3. Control your reactivity

Practice compassion.

There will be situations you can’t avoid at work and in the work environment.

So when something or someone makes you jump, count to ten internally, and if you need to count to twenty, do so, and once you have controlled the urge to argue, analyze why that situation or that person is so unbearable to you, and then think about what their life must be like to treat others that way.

I recommended this exercise to a student because his mother was bothering him anytime, anywhere.

When he asked himself the real reason for what his mother was doing. Instead of being reactive to what she was doing (interrupting him).

He realized that his mother was a widow. He lived alone and had no friends, was a nuisance, and called him a thousand times a day. True! But she was doing it because of her loneliness.

This realization led my student to feel genuine compassion for his mother. He stopped being reactive and answered her rudely to every call.

Instead, he began to listen to her for as long as necessary. Over the months, his mother reduced the number of calls to one daily. And he devoted a full hour of his time to talk to her. They both won.

Compassion heals, don’t forget.

4. Interrupt the pattern

Read, play, or do any activity that you enjoy.

Suppose the problem persists in your mind in a loop. And you drag it with you wherever you go. Interrupt the pattern by meditating, reading, playing sports, or any activity that demands so much attention that it interrupts your thoughts.

This will act as a switch in your head and channel that excess brain energy into something more productive and playful.

The playful component will free you from the stress of evil thoughts and restore your well-being.

5. Visualize the remaining negative thoughts.

Take some time each day at the end of the day to write down what makes you feel bad.

1. Visualize the remaining negative thoughts without judgment.
2. Write down all those negative thoughts on a piece of paper.
3. Roll the paper into a ball and throw it in the wastebasket.

A virtual hug

AG