The Power of Balanced Thinking

I am an optimist by nature, it’s nice when “the glass is half full”. However, life has taught me that in some situations, positive thinking does more harm than good. Having gone through pain, suffering, sadness and despondency, a person acquires strength of mind, character, courage, determination and perseverance.

Black or white?

For optimists it’s natural not to notice the bad. However, if we simply dismiss everything that makes us uncomfortable without giving ourselves a chance to think about it properly, we risk getting a distorted view of the world. Trying to avoid everything unpleasant, we will not be able to really solve the problems hidden deep inside, and we will unwittingly create the conditions under which these deep problems will again and again surface.

Similarly, pessimists tend to miss the good. But if we cannot enjoy even the simple joys of life and fully experience emotions, then we become emotionally poorer. This also prevents us from solving internal problems, because it seems to us that life will never get better.

Positive thinking helps in many situations, but sometimes negative thinking is more beneficial for us. We must balance both types of thinkingto solve internal problems and grow.

To find that balance…

…follow thoughts

To find this balance, analyze which values ​​you accept and which you discard. It doesn’t really matter how often we think about it. What matters is what ideas evoke strong emotional reactions in us. Try for at least one day to write down thoughts that arise in your mind and then note those that cause a strong reaction. See how the balance between positive and negative reactions is maintained.

…remember the promises you made to yourself

Promises. Each person makes many promises to himself – both mentally and out loud. Usually we formulate them something like this: “I will never do this again”, “In the future I will always do this”, “I will not be like this person.” These promises are ingrained in our unconscious, which is why in some situations we automatically react in a certain way, as if on autopilot. This is clearly manifested if a difficult memory or psychological trauma is associated with this promise. Think of similar promises you have made to yourself and write them down.

… get rid of unproductive thoughts

Have you heard the expressions “We are what we eat”, “We are what we think”? It takes mental discipline to weed out unproductive thoughts (both positive and negative) and focus on the deed. Imagine that your brain is a muscle that requires regular exercise. It trains when we consciously control the thought process. For some, this is difficult due to attention deficit disorder, traumatic brain injury, or other problems with brain biochemistry. Therefore, if you can’t weed out unproductive thoughts right away, be patient and practice.

… learn to be distracted

Allow yourself to be distracted from time to time. This helps the “train” of our thoughts not to go off the rails. Do not be afraid if something distracted you for a while, it will only benefit. To maintain a balance between positive and negative thinking, think of ways to distract yourself when that balance is disrupted.

Finding a balance between positive and negative thinking, we will discover new forces in ourselves. Understanding that it is not necessary to rush from one extreme to another is like a breath of fresh air.