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Avoid Negative Thinking

The first step to changing how we are thinking about stress is to pay attention to our stressful thoughts and see if we are falling into any pitfalls of negative thinking.

It is important to remember that the goal of challenging negative thinking isn't to simply replace our negative thoughts with positive ones. That would be unrealistic since the positive thoughts would not be believable to us. Instead, the goal is to think in a more balanced and rational way so that we feel more balanced. Challenging negative thinking requires us to try to come up with a more balanced view that is believable.

Sometimes simply noticing that we are engaging in negative thinking is enough to help us thinking more clearly. At other times, we need to spend more time actually challenging these negative thinking patterns. We can do this by simply writing down our negative thoughts and then trying to come up with evidence for why they aren't true. Sometimes we might even need to check out the facts with someone else because, particularly with mind reading, getting more information can often help change how we feel about a situation.

Challenge negative thinking

As a reminder, always consult your doctor for medical advice and treatment before starting any program.

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