Life
5 Tips to Stop the Snowball Effect of Negative Thinking

Humans are full of complex emotions, but it’s what makes us us. We go through good times and tough times and still keep our heads held high. Life is all about experiencing different things and making memories. Constant change and new experiences are what keep us growing as a person. However, sometimes when we face hardship, it can be hard to move on from it.
It’s the same case when we’re feeling down and start overthinking. Most of us have experienced this at some point in our lives. You’re dealing with something traumatic, and it leads to you overthinking about a million things. How does one obstacle lead to a total mess full of negative emotions?
One second, you’re calm, and the next second, you cannot stop panicking over every single detail. That’s what happens when your negative emotions get the best of you. How can you stop this from happening? Here are a few tips that might help keep everything at bay.
1. Identify Your Thoughts and Feelings
The first thing you need to do when you catch yourself overthinking is to give yourself a break. Take a deep breath and identify all the things you’re feeling in that moment. What are the thoughts coming to your head? What are you worried about? What can you do about it?
When we first start getting anxious over a small thing, it can very easily lead to a plethora of negative emotions. These emotions seem so intense that the person experiencing them feels as if they would never be okay again. So, it’s a good idea to identify all your physical and mental symptoms.
You can also try writing them down and read them out loud. If you’re feeling anxious and stressed, then you write down what your body is feeling. A lot of times, our brains trick us into thinking that things will never be okay. However, that’s not entirely true; when we go through something traumatic, we start imagining the worst possible scenarios.
For instance, if you pray regularly and you miss one of the prayers, you might spend the next hour stressing over it. You might keep checking your reminders of all the prayer timings to avoid missing the next one. It can lead to a self-destructive cycle. It’s important to remind yourself that you made one mistake, but that does not mean you’ll keep making the same mistake.
“Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” – Zig Ziglar
2. Practice Mindfulness
A lot of times, when we’re dealing with something hurtful, we get sad and start thinking negatively. That’s because, during a hard time, it’s impossible for some of us to look at the good things in our life. We face one problem and rejection, and that makes us believe that life will always be like that.
A common example would be getting a rejection letter from your dream college or company; it would make you think that you’ll keep getting rejected. During moments like these, it’s important to be mindful of the present moment. Remind yourself of all the problems you have faced before and that you will get over this as well.
When our bodies can sense danger, we get scared, and that can result in us spiralling. However, if you keep reminding yourself that you’re safe right now, it can be quite helpful. Reminding yourself of your surroundings can help us stay in the present moment and not fall down the hole.
3. Get Up and Find a Distraction
A lot of times, when we’re experiencing a negative emotion, it can leave us with extreme physical symptoms. We can experience trouble breathing, low blood pressure, and anxiety. When this happens, it can be hard to get yourself out of it. Therefore, you can try moving around and finding a distraction.
The only way you can stop your brain from imagining all the worst possibilities and worrying over everything is by changing your train of thought. The snowball effect of negative thinking is all about getting stuck in a cycle. However, if you find a hobby or distraction, you stop this cycle. You can trick your brain into focusing on something else.
4. Keep a Mental Note of All Your Triggers
When we get anxious or feel bad, most of the time, it happens because something triggered us. We all go through traumatic experiences because it’s a part of life. But sometimes, when we move on, we can still be left with random triggers.
For instance, you had a physical injury in the past when you were playing a game, and it can result in a trigger. You might think you have moved on, but the next time you put yourself out there, it can be harmful. You can start playing, but your brain will feel a sense of fear that you’re going to be hurt again. This is how triggers work and can leave you anxious.
You can try identifying your triggers and write them down. Most of the time, we don’t pay attention to what our bodies are trying to tell us. If we listen and remember that our brain needs a break, it can avoid any harsh results.
“Negativity, in general, is one of the things that holds people back, and you have to see what’s holding you back to get away from it.” – Lucy Dacus
5. Remind Yourself That This is Temporary
Have you ever been on a scary ride, and you kept thinking that it was never going to end? That’s how it feels when you think that things will never get better. We face a problem, and it leads us to believe that all we will ever have are going to be problems.
If you want to pull yourself out of this, you can try reminding yourself that what you are feeling is temporary. It helps to have a support system in the form of your friends and family who remind you that you’ll move on. You won’t always stay this way.
It takes a great deal of emotional strength and hard work to not let our feelings take over. We face problems, and we face happy times but none of them last forever. Just because one thing didn’t go our way, doesn’t mean that nothing ever will.
It can be hard to stop yourself from always breaking down when you face disappointment. But it’s a lifelong journey, and these tips will help you regulate your emotions better. Once you learn how to deal with all the feelings you have, you can learn how to be a better person.
Life
The Imbalanced Problem with Work/Life Balance
Balancing is for your checkbook, gymnastics, and nutrition; not for your people’s work/life ratio.

Balance…it requires an equal distribution of value between two or more subjects to maintain steady composure and equitable proportionality. (more…)

It’s 2023, a new year, new you, right? But how do we start over? How do we make the changes in our lives that we crave so much to see? (more…)
Life
Failing is More Important Than Succeeding
Failure is an integral part of life as life is incomplete without failures.

People often consider failure a stigma. Society often doesn’t respect the people who failed and avoids and criticizes their actions. Failure is an integral part of life as life is incomplete without failures. Not to have endeavored is worse than failing in life as at some stage of your life you regret not having tried in your life. (more…)
Life
5 Indicators of Unresolved Attachment Trauma

Trauma caused during specific stages of a child’s development, known as attachment trauma, can have lasting effects on a person’s sense of safety, security, predictability, and trust. This type of trauma is often the result of abuse, neglect, or inconsistent care from a primary caregiver.
Individuals who have not fully processed attachment trauma may display similar patterns of behavior and physical or psychological symptoms that negatively impact their adult lives, including the choices they make in relationships and business.
Unfortunately, many people may not even be aware that they are struggling with trauma. Research estimates that 6% of the population will experience PTSD in their lifetime, with a majority of males and females having experienced significant trauma.
Unresolved attachment trauma can significantly impair the overall quality of a person’s life, including their ability to form healthy relationships and make positive choices for themselves. One well-known effect of unhealed attachment trauma is the compulsion to repeat past wounds by unconsciously selecting romantic partners who trigger their developmental trauma.
However, there are other less recognized but equally detrimental signs of unprocessed developmental trauma.
Five possible indications of unresolved attachment trauma are:
1. Unconscious Sabotage
Self-sabotage is a common pattern among individuals with unprocessed attachment trauma. This cycle often begins with hurting others, which is then followed by hurting oneself. It is also common for those with attachment trauma to have heightened emotional sensitivity, which can trigger this cycle.
This pattern can manifest in lashing out, shutting down, or impulsive behavior that leads to feelings of guilt, shame, and self-loathing.
Many people with attachment trauma are not aware of their wounds and operate on survival mode, unconsciously testing or challenging the emotional investment of those around them, and pushing them away out of self-preservation and fear of abandonment.
This can lead to a pattern of making poor choices for themselves based on impulsivity.
3. Behaviors That Block Out Trauma
4. A strong need for control
5. Psychological Symptoms That Are Not Explained
What to do next if you’re suffering from emotional attachment trauma?
There are several ways that people can work to overcome emotional attachment trauma:
- Therapy: One of the most effective ways to overcome emotional attachment trauma is through therapy. A therapist can help you process your experiences, understand the impact of your trauma on your life, and develop coping strategies to manage symptoms.
- Support groups: Joining a support group of people who have had similar experiences can be a great way to find validation, empathy, and a sense of community.
- Mindfulness practices: Mindfulness practices such as meditation, pilates, prayer time with God or journaling can help you become more aware of your thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations, and develop a sense of spiritual connection and self-regulation.
- Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT): This is a type of therapy that is specifically designed to help individuals process and recover from traumatic events.
- Building a safety net: Building a support system of people you trust, who are there for you when you need them, can help you feel more secure and safe in your life.
It’s important to remember that healing from emotional attachment trauma is a process and it may take time. It’s also important to find a therapist who is experienced in treating trauma, who you feel comfortable talking with, and who can help you develop a personalized treatment plan.
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