Being cynical is a way of life for many people. Maybe they’ve always been pessimistic, or maybe a recent incident knocked them off their feet, and they’ve just accepted it, so this article will teach you how to avoid being negative. Not only does the news and social media try to bombard you with sensationalized headlines every day, but your own mentality is also working against you. We all have an innate negativity bias[1] that causes the negative to linger in our minds far longer than the positive. This was a survival strategy in hunter- gatherer days, but it no longer works for us.
Try to practice the art of gratitude. Have you ever heard that gratitude it the right attitude. Gratitude can be expressed in a variety of ways. Simply look around you and make a mental list of all for which you are thankful. Soon enough, you’ll know how fortunate you are. In general, the more inventive and forward-thinking you can be with your gratitude practice, the better. If you’re in your room, be thankful for the bed, the roof over your head, the fluffy sheets, and the comfortable pillow.
One of the most common causes of upset is a lack of knowledge of what you can and cannot control. Some of the keys to leading a more optimistic life are letting go of the things you can’t manage and doing your best for what you can. On the television, you can witness a terrible incident. Is there something you can do about it? It’s horrific, but is there something you can do about it? No, but when you turn the TV off, you’re left with a residual feeling of negativity. You have no control over this, so why bother your mental with thoughts of the ‘what if’ or the ‘why’s.
Bad influences in your life are likely feeding you a lot of negativity, as I stated briefly earlier. The longer and more often you depend on them for your fix, the more likely you are to be pessimistic about anything. As I mentioned briefly earlier, negative factors in your life are likely feeding you a lot of negativity. You’re more likely to be cynical about something if you depend on them for your fix for a long time and on a regular basis.
Meditation helps settle your mind and emotions. The most recommended type of meditation (there are many types and forms of meditation) is mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness is a state of mind. Meditation is a mental training technique that helps you to relax your mind and body by slowing down racing thoughts and letting go of negativity. It combines meditation with mindfulness, which is described as a mental state in which you are completely focused on “the now” and can recognize and acknowledge your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment. It’s all about not communicating with or being identified with thoughts in this type of work. Instead, you observe thoughts as they come and go, as if from a distant past. While it may seem woo-woo at first, mindfulness meditation has a lot of scientific evidence to back it up.
You can watch your thoughts and feelings without judging them or being swept up in a web of intense emotions if you can take a step back from them. Negativity is the same way, since it is just a collection of thoughts like any other. With a little practice, you’ll be able to detect the onset of a negative emotion. You will then welcome it and watch it pass you by before it is replaced by other thoughts. Negativity and negative feelings only last as long as you keep them in your head.
