If this pandemic has suddenly turned you into someone with more negative thoughts than positive, you are not alone. COVID-19 has come with a lot of stress that makes it harder to stay positive. You might have concerns about your wellbeing, family, work and et cetera, and if left unchecked, psychologists say, those thoughts can become even more ingrained and contribute to mental health challenges, like depression and anxiety.
It’s been a year and a half since the outbreak of the virus, and as if losing her job wasn’t enough, Bonita Keza also lost close relatives and friends to the illness. She says she now lives in fear as she doesn’t know what tomorrow holds, especially with all the variants.
Her worst moment, she says, was having to delete phone contacts of the deceased, but she is yet to come to terms with the fact that they’re actually gone. It has been a challenging period for her.
"Nightmares became a regular thing and I constantly find myself questioning if life will ever be the same again. The whole situation has left me stressed and depressed,” Keza says.
People experience negative thoughts for a number of reasons. According to Healthy Place, negative thinking is something we all engage in from time to time, but constant negativity can destroy your mental health, leaving you depressed and anxious.
Vicki Kress, a therapist at Mental Health Hub Rwanda-Kicukiro, says that one’s thoughts can affect their mental state, among other issues.
In a new study, researchers at University College London say they have found repetitive negative thinking is linked to cognitive decline, a higher number of harmful protein deposits in the brain, and consequently a greater risk of dementia. Kress notes that the body of research demonstrates that negative thinking can take a toll on our physical and mental health. The therapist explains that negative thought patterns can impact your physical health and may lead to heart diseases. Negative thoughts can also wear down your mental health and lead to the development of various issues such as depression or anxiety. Negative thoughts can also harm your relationships as it can be hard to be around those who think negatively.
Negative thinking makes you feel blue about the world, yourself, and the future. It contributes to low self-worth. It makes you feel you’re not effective in the world, according to Cleveland Clinic. Psychologists link negative thinking to depression, anxiety, chronic worry and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). But almost all human beings contend with it — even those born with a positive outlook on life.
Kress says there are many different ways you can turn negative thoughts around. People often think of thoughts as something they cannot control, but with practice, positive thoughts can be cultivated. The remedy to negative thoughts is positive thoughts. Write down a list of positive thoughts that change negative thoughts. "One simple way is to focus on gratitude, what are the things in your life that you are grateful for? Another way is to be aware of your feelings. The only way around feelings is through them. So think of your feelings as a tunnel that you have to go through and once you get to the other side, you’re beyond it,” Kress emphasises.
Kress adds that we often avoid dark or hard feelings and this tends to only give them more power and can lead to negative thoughts. She urges allowing yourself a certain, limited amount of time or space each day to think, negative thoughts can be helpful, but quickly move into thinking positive thoughts. For her, affirmations can help limit negative thoughts. An affirmation can be defined as a positive phrase or statement that we repeat to ourselves to help ourselves feel better. Generally, these are used to help us connect with our goals, dreams, or experiences we desire.
According to Kress, much of our negative thinking is rooted in early messages we received from our family. These thinking patterns can become baked into our neural pathways. "A quote I once heard that I love goes like this, ‘Our brain is like a non-stick pan for positive thoughts.’ This means that we don’t easily remember positive thoughts. For negative thoughts, however, our brain is like Velcro - this means that negative thoughts tend to stick to our brain and are hard to get off. That said, we can teach our brains to stick to positive thoughts,” she says. The therapist adds that negative thinking can become a learned habit and that is exciting because, like any habit, it can be changed and controlled; just as bad habits can be learned, good habits can also be learned.
Health experts say that in order to feel more positive, share your feelings with someone close to you, do something nice for yourself, take time to count your blessings as there are so many things for each of us to be thankful for and also eat well, sleep well and be active.
Kress says negative thoughts can be foundational to anxiety, depression, and trauma responses. Overtime, negative thinking can contribute to the development of various mental health disorders. "We all must strive to engage in habits that promote positive thinking. When we are positive, it also helps those around us feel better. It deepens our ability to demonstrate empathy and compassion and be fully connected with others.”