Negative Forecasting by Allison Feehan

The Power of Positive Thinking

Negative Forecasting

by Allison Feehan, N.D., D.Psc, CRMT

Is your glass half empty? You’re about to have your last negative thought as I help you shut-down negative bias, where we think more about what goes wrong than what can go right. It is so engrained in us to have negative self-talk. Looped narratives replay in our minds like a broken record player that we just can’t seem to escape from. Sometimes we wish we could just escape our own minds, press pause or stop. This conflict is produced inside of us. You take a bad moment and draw a huge sweeping conclusion from it.

When we recognize moments like these it is important not to beat yourself up about but rather channel your true self, reconnect to your vision, and remember that you need to reject the negativity. You may think your responsible for all the negativity around you. This overgeneralizing and personalizing needs to be banished for good. Distract yourself. If you are doing something routine, change it up. Turn off auto pilot and give that activity your full attention it demands. At times when you personalize too much that everything is your fault respond to yourself with a mantra that, “This is just negative thinking.”

The anticipation of disaster is your brain in a dress rehearsal for tragedy. Expecting everything that you plan for to go wrong is a daily dose for constant negativity. Remind yourself that this negativity is just your brain trying to keep you safe by preparing you for the potential problem ahead. Anticipated situations like this can create anxiety and sometimes even depression. Talking to a friend or family member may not always help in situations of exaggerated negativity making us feel as if we have nowhere to turn. What does help is turning inward and working on yourself from the inside out. Find gratitude in the uneasy situation and say to yourself, “Thank you brain for trying to protect me but I can take it from here. I can handle this.” Remind yourself that you have no control over certain situations or people and that there is no sense in worrying over something you cannot control. Whatever happens, you can go forth feeling determined to “fix” or “clean-up” the situation rather than feel defeated. This too shall pass just like every “tragic” situation before this one.

Mental time travel can take you on quite a ride! If your sure things just won’t go well and you start calculating that all the odds are against you, you need to ground yourself. Press your toes into the floor to bring your awareness to your body and not your mind. You can also try walking heavier, heel-toe to feel more grounded and releasing expectations.

Emotional reasoning is fusing together feelings and reality. You tend to think how you feel is how things are. When you feel guilty you think you must be guilty of something. When you feel lonely, you think no one loves you or cares about you. This false sense of reasoning can drag down your mood and keep you there. Emotions are meant to pass through us and not set-up camp. We are meant to feel various emotions throughout the day so sitting in a negative vibration of emotions for too long can be detrimental to your health. Being conscious of these negative emotions can help you to bring your awareness to identifying this as a temporary state. I am lonely is a temporary state of being. You can banish this for good by beginning a daily meditation practice with a mantra of “I am”. If your mind is still looping in those negative emotions and distracting your sleep pattern, try a Yoga Nidra practice. This can help de-magnify the negative and help you to not fixate on the downside. Yoga Nidra cane bring you into a deep relaxing state.

It can take a process of elimination to see what works best for us. One tool that might work for your friend may not be effective on you. Self-care isn’t always easy and listening to what is best for your mind, body, and spirit is most important. Force yourself to list three good things about yourself daily. Make a list of all that you are grateful for every day. Understand that you can’t always expect a certain outcome but you can expect to change the way you feel about that outcome.

In Health and Wellness

Allison Feehan N.D., D.Psc, CRMT

Owner of Integrative Healing and Wellness 732.202.6797 523 Main Avenue Bay Head, NJ

half empty?

half full?

August 2018 6 Check us out online at www.typhoonmedianj.com