These Three Strategies Help Me Escape Toxic Thoughts

If you live in a cold weather climate you know this feeling. The meteorologist forecasts a dusting of snow. It turns into significant accumulation. The snow stops. You clear your driveway and walkway. Then, without warning, the snow starts again. Another few inches grace your driveway.

Shit. The last half hour was a total waste.

I may have uttered an expletive or two. You know the old saying never kick a man while he’s down?

That’s how I felt. The weather gods kicked me while I was down. The snow finally ended. I went back outside and cleared the driveway again.

This time I bundled up and went outside with a different attitude.

The snowstorm banished us to the confines of our home. I couldn’t get to the gym. Going for a run was out of the question too. Clearing my property of snow was the only outlet for exercise. A simple reframing freed me from negativity.

I employ three strategies to snap myself out of a negative state. Today, I only needed the first one. For those times of nagging negativity, I use more extreme tactics.

My first strategy involves a simple question.

Asking myself this question helps me reframe a negative situation into one with a positive outlook. Does it always work? No. It often fails. Still, I find that it helps me escape the toxic feeling of negativity. When this fails to do the job I turn to two other techniques.

I don’t recall how I came up with this. I swear it works. You’re familiar with meditation, right? This is a bit different. I sit like I am going to meditate. Then, I close my eyes.

Now, what do you see when you close your eyes?

Is it pitch black? No, Depending on the lighting you see different colors and textures. Sometimes I see swirls, colors and dots. I focus on what I can see with my eyes closed. I may see streaks of yellow. Maybe it’s swirls of purple.

Here’s the thing. It’s hard to focus on negative thoughts or any other thoughts while you focus on this task.

Like I said, it sounds weird. Trust me, it works.

Sometimes, negative thoughts linger. They leave and come back. What do you do about those situations? I turn to a simple writing exercise. I write out the negative feeling and the event that led to it. Then, I’ll write a five-hundred-word story about it. I use this simple format.

Many of these five-hundred-word stories become blog posts. Writing about every negative thought is impractical. For persistent negative thoughts, writing has proven to be the best therapy.

After years of searching, the magic bullet to eradicating toxic thoughts still eludes me. These three strategies work most of the time.

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