Do you know what makes your problems even worse than they really are? It’s your negative thinking. Whenever you are indulging in negative thinking, unconsciously you are stretching out your problems so that you become problem-oriented instead of being solution-oriented.

What’s the origin of negative thoughts and where does it come from?

Well, it is generated by no other sources, but your own mind. Your mind produces these thoughts when you are doubtful and tense about something. It might be anything such as thinking about bad experiences in the past or thinking about things that are beyond your capacity to understand and making wrong assumptions.

There are a lot of people suffering from this problem. I have some practical techniques that I have used to eliminate my negative thoughts. You can also apply these techniques to overcome your negative thoughts.

The tips and techniques are as follows:

Seek the company of positive people

You are the average of five people you interact with most. So, if you want to silence your negative mind then you have to stop sitting with and talking to negative people.

Make optimistic and positive friends. Their company and influence will help you a lot in your conquest of killing negativity from your life.

Don’t chase perfection

It’s a fact that everything in this world tries to become more stable. Everybody tries to achieve more perfection. But sometimes our mission of achieving perfection makes us think negatively. Perfection means perfect physique, perfect look, perfect clothes, perfect voice, perfect accent and so on.

We have to admit that there are certain things that are out of our control, just like we can’t do anything about the colour of our eyes, and the shape of our face. So, thinking negatively and trying to change things not in our control is a waste of energy and time.

Express gratitude

Be grateful for everything you have. Sometimes in our life, we are ignoring ninety-nine percent of the good things and just worrying about the one percent of bad things. Every day, we must look at the bright side of life.

We have numerous blessings, such as eyes to see, food to eat, and hands to do different things etc. We must thank God for everything that ­­­we are blessed with.

Use affirmations

It’s a fact that whatever we do or say on a daily basis becomes part of our subconscious mind. If we say good things to ourselves even in bad situations, it will turn the situation. So, we must make a habit of using positive affirmations to feed positive energy to our minds.

For example, every day when you wake up, say to yourself phrases such as, “This is my day”, “I’m confident”, “I will give my hundred percent today”. After some time it will become a part of your subconscious mind and you will start believing it.

Don’t argue

Never indulge in any argument that does not generate a conclusion and benefit anyone. Arguing with people just to prove that your point is right is just a waste of time and energy.

Whenever we do these types of debates, our mission is just to prove that we are right and the other person is wrong. In this process, our mind is constantly producing negative thoughts about our opponent and this creates hatred among us.

As Dale Carnegie once said, “The best way to win an argument is to avoid it.”

Challenge yourself

Challenge yourself that you will not do anything that can give rise to negative thoughts. Don’t blame anybody, take responsibility for all of your acts and try to calm your mind in difficult situations. Believe that you are going to kill negative thoughts for good.

Adapted from "Advice: How to kill negative thoughts." Published in Dawn, Young World.