My Little Experiment with Thoughts
So, I was kinda going through a phase, you know, feeling a bit down, noticing I was getting stuck on negative stuff a lot. Just complaining in my head, I guess. I read somewhere, probably just scrolling online, about how your thoughts can shape your mood. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a simple idea: try to notice the bad thoughts and, like, argue with them a little, find something not-so-bad about the situation.
I figured, why not? Couldn’t make things worse. So, I decided to actually try doing it. Wasn’t sure how to start, really. I didn’t get a special app or anything. I just told myself, ‘Okay, pay attention to what’s bouncing around in your head today.’
Man, the first few days were weird. It’s hard to catch your own thoughts! They just happen. But I kept at it. When I noticed myself thinking something like, ‘Ugh, this traffic is going to make me late and ruin everything,’ I’d stop. Like, literally pause for a second. Then I forced myself, and yeah, it felt super forced at first, to find something else. Maybe, ‘Well, at least I can listen to this podcast longer,’ or ‘Okay, I’ll be late, but it’s not the end of the world. I can handle it.’
Here’s what I actually did, step-by-step:
- Listen In: Made an effort to just notice the automatic negative stuff popping into my brain during the day.
- Hit Pause: When I caught one, I’d mentally (or sometimes actually mutter under my breath) say ‘Hold on’.
- Challenge It: I’d ask myself, ‘Is this 100% true? Is it really that bad?’
- Find an Alternative: This was the hard part. I tried to find a slightly more positive or even just a neutral way to look at it. Didn’t have to be sunshine and rainbows, just… less doom and gloom. Like finding a tiny crack of light.
I didn’t write things down consistently, mostly just did it in my head. Some days I forgot completely. Other days, I caught myself doing it quite a bit. It wasn’t like a switch flipped overnight. It was slow. Sometimes it felt dumb, like I was lying to myself.
But after doing this for maybe a few weeks, just trying to be more aware and gently push back against the really negative automatic thoughts, I did notice something. It wasn’t huge. I didn’t suddenly become mister positive thinking. But things felt… I don’t know, a bit lighter maybe? Like the constant grumbling in my head turned down a notch. When something annoying happened, my first reaction wasn’t always a spiral into ‘everything is awful’. Sometimes it was just, ‘Okay, that’s annoying,’ and then I moved on a little quicker.
So yeah, that was my little psychology experiment on myself. Just noticing thoughts and trying to nudge them slightly. Simple stuff, but it kinda made a small difference over time. It’s just about paying attention and being a little bit active in your own head, I suppose.
