Divine Days Community CIC

Do you ever wake up in the night in cold sweats, or anxious of things that might happen the following day/ week or soon? I know I have, a great piece of advice, that works for me, is to take a pen a pad of paper to bed and place it on the bed side table, within reach. So when you wake up, write down the issue and look at it fresh in the morning. Writing the issue down can release you from the anxiety and enable it to leave your conscious mind, whilst your body can rest.

This is one example of a simple solution for a potentially big issue that has been created in your mind.

So how do we manage our thoughts? Well we can deal with them, squash them, react to them or build on the previous thoughts you may have had.

And how is this manageable?

Dealing with thoughts is a good way of deciphering what is a negative or positive thought, we need both to survive, as it works similarly to fight, flight or freeze. Some negative thoughts are good, to keep us from harm, but often a negative thought can be a lack of confidence, some anxiety or a reluctance to tackle it, but if you do deal with it, it helps build your resilience and the next time it happens, you have that tool kit in your pocket to use again.

Squashing thoughts is, in the short term ok to do. You might have something more pressing that needs to be done, and dwelling on a thought can be distracting. However, squashing negative thoughts over and over can lead to a pressure cooker situation, where eventually a person will blow. I’d try and avoid suppressing feelings, as in the mid to long term it can have massive consequences.

Reacting to negative thoughts, can be good. Dealing with something immediately is a positive right? Well often it can be, but it really depends on the situation. If it is a face to face discussion, where you have a different opinion on something, dealing with it immediately is a good way to progress. On the flip is reacting to al negative thoughts, this can be hugely distracting and take you away from the task at hand and lead to poor time management.

The most dangerous one that can make you spiral is compounding a negative thought with another, then another. For example, if I am taking the children to school in a morning, there are so many possibilities for things to go wrong. If you look at the fact that, we’re going to be late, then the traffic lights are on red, then you get stuck behind a tractor, all of a sudden you  can believe, today is going to be a bad one, as nothing is going right. Objectively this is a small part of your day and do you focus on the positives in the same way when, your children get themselves ready in time, the lights are green and the road is clear?

If the answer is no, I challenge you to look for the good in journeys, both physical or metaphorical today.

Tweaking a negative thought into an opportunity to find a solution is a great way to look at every situation, changing a mindset can positively change your life.

Have a day.