Week Three.....New Habits, Turn Negatives to Positives!

Have you heard the idiom....Slow and Steady Wins the Race....well the same goes with anxiety and resulting depression. To overcome them we need to take it slow. That is why we are doing this support group week by week. By taking it slow, we give our brains the opportunity to make new neuron connections. We literally can rewire our brains by making new pathways to think differently. Researchers and scientists call this Brain Plasticity. This is exceptionally great news, because, if you have anxiety or resulting depression......you can change the thoughts that are keeping you in this condition.

Here is how this is done.....

First off,...anxiety and the resulting depression are habits....that is all that it is....a habit!

Not all habits are bad though. We all have the habit of putting on our clothes before we leave the house in the morning. Brushing your teeth is a habit, looking both ways before crossing the street is a habit, locking your door when you leave your house is a habit. These are examples of good habits.

Anxiety and depression are also habits....bad habits, but, really nothing more then habits! The habit, is negative thinking.....yep....that's it....problem solved.....stop thinking negatively and everything will be OK!!! Hahah...yea right!

Here's the secret, (which also turns out to be the truth)....in order to break a habit....you need to replace it with another habit....SAY WHAT???

You heard me right....in order to break a habit, you need to replace it with another habit.....a positive habit! It took you a long time to create those anxious thoughts and it will take a little time to rewire them to something a bit more positive. Once you do the rewiring though....they will be good to go for the rest of your life. OK....now how do we rewire our brains and make new neuron connections and pathways to think more positively?

That, my dear, is what this week is all about!!!!

You are about to rewire your brain by challenging your negative thoughts from here on out. That little book that I asked you to get for your homework assignment from last week, will become your pathway to helping to rewire your brain....for the positive!

Here's what we are gonna do:

You know how it seems that sometimes your anxiety goes from zero to sixty in a second. Well, we are going to rely on that warning system of ours again. The minute your warning system goes off, I want you to...STOP.....then ask yourself...WHAT WAS I JUST THINKING?????

Next,

Take your deep breaths and activate your parasympathetic nervous system. (Remember the system that activates calm...check week two if you need a refresher...this is all new stuff!) Now, what ever it was that you were just thinking....WRITE IT DOWN! Believe me, these thoughts are so fast that if we don't get it down on paper we will forget it by the time we get a chance later on. I remember times when I would be at a gathering and my warning system would go off. I would excuse myself, go to the restroom and write my thought down in there. Nobody even knew what I was doing.

Once you have your negative thought written down, then....immediately write a counter thought, something more positive, soothing, compassionate, logical and truthful. If you are unable to come up with a positive thought right then, then do it later....just don't forget to do it.

Note on Negative Thoughts:

If you were like me, you may have a hard time catching these negative thoughts. I had become so used to them that I had a hard time seeing that they are negetive.

So what is a negative thought??!

Any thought that makes you feel.......Sad
Worthless
Unattractive
Unintelligent
Unloved
Unappreciated
Depressed
Scared
Helpless
Doomed
Out of control
Unhealthy....when you are healthy
Nervous

I really could go on and on.....basically a negative thought is anything that makes you feel bad!


So what so a positive thought???

Any thought that makes you feel......Peaceful
Comforted
Confident
Self esteemed
Energetic
Loved
Intelligent
Attractive
Worthwhile
Capable
Important

Basically anything that makes you feel good about yourself and the world around you is a positive thought!!!


True story about me:
I know that the reason it took me so long to overcome anxiety and depression was that I was a super negative thinker. I literally tried every avenue under the sun to overcome this condition. If someone was to tell me this program works for about 99.99% of the folks whom try. I would definitely be in the .01% that it did not work for. I am not exaggerating this.... I was such a negative thinker. As I began to work on learning how to change my thoughts to more positive....I began to learn something very important.

YOU WILL BELIEVE WHAT YOU THINK

If you think negative and believe that you will never get over anxiety and depression,...well guess what,...you won't! If you learn how to change those negative thoughts around and learn to think positive....and if you tell yourself that you will get over anxiety and depression,....guess what,....YOU WILL!!!

Are you ready to start changing those negative habitual thoughts?

HOMEWORK:

1) Look out for your warning system
2) WHAT WAS I JUST THINKING??? ....Write down the negative thought!
3) Write down a more positive, compassionate, and logical response.

If you get stuck...don't worry about it. It takes a while to come up with positive thoughts when we have worked so hard to think negatively. You will get it eventually. Before you know it, positive thoughts will start to become your new habit. We will be working on this from here on out. Bring on Brain Plasticity!

Please share your examples of negative to positive thoughts, so others can be inspired.... Here is an example post:

NEGATIVE THOUGHT:
Ugh...the holidays....I am sooo stressed out. I don't know how I am going to make it through next week. I still need to purchase gifts. I hate going to the mall. Money is tight...and that holiday gathering is going to be tough on my nerves. I feel like crying.

POSITIVE:
Alright...the truth is, the holidays are not the problem....my thoughts are. I'm going to take a deep breath and see if I can relax a moment here. First off... I will make it through this week because this year I am going to actively work on making it better by replacing my negative thoughts with positive thoughts! Secondly, money is tight....so maybe instead of going to the mall.... I can go to the market. I saw a great recipe on Pinterest on how to make candied nuts. Maybe I will make up a big batch of nuts and give them as gifts with a note saying how much I appreciate each person I give them to. As for the gatherings. Social events do make me nervous....but, I know this is just a habit. I am going to go to the gathering and take some deep breaths to activate that parasympathetic nervous system, if needed. I will be fine...after all I am breaking bad habits and making positive ones....this will be great homework! I will be fine. Who knows, I may end up even enjoying the holidays!

Another Example:

NEGATIVE THOUGHT:
I have had anxiety and depression for so long....I never will get over this condition!

POSITIVE THOUGHT:
I may have had this condition for years but now I am learning ways to overcome it. I just didn't know how to fix it before. How could I fix something with out tools. Now I am learning the tools to fix myself. Anxiety is a habit and I am going to work on breaking this habit. As far as getting over this condition....I suppose I won't know if it is possible unless I try. I am going to continue to write down all of my negative thoughts and replace them with thoughts that make me feel more soothed, comforted and loved. I am going to talk to myself like I would talk to a small child who was scared or a friend who is in desperate need of my help. I am going to learn to love me and overcome these negative thoughts....one at a time.....until I no longer need to write them down and positivity becomes my new habit.

Note:
This last example was me about 5 years ago. I no longer need to write my negative thoughts down! Anxiety and depression disorder is a thing in my past. You can get there too!

I can't wait to see your negative to positive posts!

Next week we will be adding on and I will be telling you about the power of exercise and diet......just in time for the new year!

My best to you!