Negative thoughts and blocking emotions

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They block our purposeful activity and at the same time create a "vicious circle", so it is important to recognize them and you do not need to "make a donkey out of a mosquito"

We all sometimes have the experience that the world "suffocates" us, that we are completely unsuccessful in life, when, as the poet would say, "the soul weaves sorrow from everything". For some, this happens very often and significantly affects their quality of life. In these cases, it is usually a matter of creating a "vicious circle" between negative thoughts and blocking emotions.

In order to know how to fight against negative thoughts, we need to know how to recognize them. They always appear as ready-made conclusions that do not require further evidence: "the elevator will surely break down", "today I fail the exam", "people around me are constantly lying to me" ... They often appear before some important events in our lives and after stressful situations, but they can occur at any time.

Dangerous exclusive claims

According to the content, they can be very different, depending on our age, experience, environment. They can refer to the external reality ("everything I eat is poisonous"), the social environment ("people who know me don't like me at all") or our personality ("I am completely incompetent").

They most often appear in the form of exclusive claims that include superlatives: the ugliest, the stupidest, the most unhappy, the fattest, as well as in the form of general phrases such as all people, the whole world ...

These thoughts are always accompanied by negative emotions (shame, fear, anger ...) of varying intensity. These emotions block our purposeful activity and at the same time additionally strengthen negative thoughts and create a "vicious circle". These thoughts are not the product of a rational process of thinking as a relatively free assessment of the state of affairs in external and internal reality based on our knowledge and experiences, but prevent us from thinking rationally and acting purposefully.

It is even more important to recognize blocking emotions, which in intensity and duration are never appropriate to the reason they were provoked, which would be called a folk proverb in their case "we make a donkey out of a mosquito". That's why a joke or an incidental remark from a colleague from work or a friend sounds like an unforgivable insult to someone.

Characteristic of blocking emotions is the sudden and rapid increase in the intensity of emotional reactions (irritation-anger-anger, discomfort-fear-panic) as their change from positive to negative and vice versa from fascination to disappointment, from elation to despair.

As they cause strong feelings of discomfort, and often a feeling of remorse and guilt, we often do not recognize these feelings as a certain emotion, but they appear in us in the form of general anxiety, which is professionally called anxiety. It is often accompanied by palpitations, dizziness, sweating, upset.

These emotions are a reaction to both negative thoughts and events from our past experience, so they have little to do with current events in our lives. They often lead to completely inadequate and harmful actions: endless quarrels with close people, creating addictions, whether emotional or gambling, psychoactive substances, social networks on the Internet. This destroys real emotional relationships with close people and further impairs mental stability.

What can be done to break this vicious circle? A good first step is to notice their appearance and influence in our lives through self-observation. How often do negative thoughts or blocking emotions occur? In what environment does this happen? How much does it bother us in everyday life?

The second step may be to talk to close people, instead of shutting yourself in. It is always useful to try to find out if someone close to us has similar experiences and what they are doing in those moments. It is also important to communicate about how we feel at the moment, which will make those thoughts and feelings closer and more understandable to ourselves. More importantly, we reduce our focus on ourselves and our own problems and dilemmas and share one shared experience that can help us in life.

Negative thoughts are very resistant to outside advice, but once we recognize them in ourselves, we can try to include real opinion and thus "defeat" the accuracy of negative thoughts and reduce their importance in our mental life.

Nobody is successful all the time, but he can fight with the negative thought that "I can't do anything right". When you think about it, you will remember situations that refute that.

Activities that bring joy

With a little recollection and reflection, you will see that the thought "nothing good ever happens to me" is not positive, because there are certainly things that make you happy.

A person who notices the appearance of blocking feelings in himself can make an effort and wonder if his anger, rage, jealousy, envy, the appropriate response given the circumstances. As much as it is to others, and so much to her. Prolonged anxiety exhausts us and often completely passivates and disables us in our activities.

Mental and in general every purposeful activity always helps us to focus on something else, in that sense every quality pastime is useful: sports activities, reading, watching movies, listening to music ... Everything that helps us not to remain passive and preoccupied with ourselves .

If we notice that this "whirlpool" constantly pulls us towards negative thoughts, blocking feelings and problematic behavior that upsets us and our loved ones, it is necessary to seek professional help that should help us cope with the psychological crisis.