Destroying Negativity

By Rooda AlNeama (@ThinkDubai)

Negativity.  It is a simple word, yet can mean so many unpleasant things, things we want to change, things that we would rather not think about or feel.  My mission of the month is to try to mentally ‘zap’ any negative thoughts that come into my mind upon realizing of course that they are negative.

The journey was anything but easy.  Being conscious of one’s train of thoughts is hard, especially since the stream of thoughts is filled with different topics, emotions, situations and people. I would like to share with you some of the things I learnt from purposely identifying negative thoughts and zapping them; hoping it will help others realize what their negative thoughts are doing to them!

Night and Day: I realized that when sleeping with a negative thought, waking up with a negative thought was inevitable.  Realizing this pattern made it easier to eliminate the morning negative thoughts by thinking of all the things that are planned for the day.

Waste of Time: Most of my negative thoughts stemmed from things that may not happen; in one word: WORRY.  Wasting time worrying caused a hole of doubt and scenarios that may not happen. Then one worry led to another worry and the negative thoughts kept digging the hole deeper. I found the fastest way to stop the negative thoughts is to ZAP myself back to the present and enjoying it NOW.

Subdued: Often when negativity takes over, I find myself being, well, not myself! Lacking the energy that I would like to bring to conversations, lacking the desire to engage myself with others, and eventually falling back into the hole of worry.  ZAPPING this was going to be hard because its more of a feeling that takes over rather than a single thought.

Exercise: definitely helped me regain my sense of self as I realized I have the power to change and push myself and not my negative thoughts! It was like the negative thoughts fueled the energy and watching them burn with aerobic exercise is a triumph.

As I literally started with negativity, ending with positivity seems just right.  We know many things but fail to implement them in our lives until we consciously decide to make a change and that is what I learned from my negativity ZAP journey. As promised, an ending with a positive quote that fits this journey of awareness: ‘There is a choice you have to make, in everything you do. So keep in mind that in the end, the choice you make, makes you.’ – Coach John Wooden

Here We Start – Interview – Just Another Undergrad – Living Through The Eyes of Art – Microscopic Me
Scenes From Life – Society of Tomorrow – To The Point – Words, Observations, and Ramblings