CHALLENGING NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

Negative thoughts will affect your mental health.  Whether it is low self esteem, depression, or anxiety, negative thoughts are often a part of the problem.  Often people will focus on the negative instead of the positive. Even if the negative is only 10% or less of their life. By learning to challenge these thoughts, you can change them and therefore improve your mental health. 

Think about the following:

  • Is there evidence about what you are thinking or is it possibly emotionally based?

  • Is there evidence that goes against these thoughts?

  • Are you making assumptions about the situation without all of the facts?

  • Pretend you are someone else looking in on the situation.  Maybe a friend or your counselor. What would they think about the situation?

  • Try to find the positives in the situation instead of only the negatives.

  • How important is this? Does it only seem important now but will likely not be important in the future?

Work on challenging your negative thoughts and reframing them. It can help your daily living.

Karen Baum MA, LPCC-S   419.277.4355  WWW.SavingGraceTC.com

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