We all face those days when worry seems to be the only thing on our minds. We begin to think about the worst-case scenerios and envision our worst nightmare coming true. These thoughts may even keep us up all night if we let them run rampant.
So what causes these horrible and seemingly uncontrollable thoughts? I call them “happiness enemies” and they’re a combination of worry, doubt, and beliefs; and if we aren’t careful, these three things can lead to immense fear and have the capacity to consume our minds and run our life.
Luckily, there are things you can do right now to stop these “happiness enemies” in their tracks. We must first begin by becoming self-aware which helps us put things into perspective. Beliefs after all, are nothing more than firmly held opinions which come from thoughts.
In case you don’t know by now, thoughts are automatic. We rarely go without thought. In fact, even when we meditate, we have thoughts however, the key is knowing how to control them.
Like taking any enemies out, It’s important to know their behavior and become ahead of their game. That’s what we need to do with these happiness enemies. Recognize them for what they are, subjective and very personal. This gives us the ability to control them because they are our very own.
Below are the three happiness enemies:
1. Worry
Worry removes us from the present moment and takes away any possible enjoyment from it as well. It can be quite powerful and has the capacity to switch up our moods as well. It also causes us to react defensively and can even make us ill.
Our only antidote to worry is to think of pleasant thoughts through our imagination. Seriously! We have the ability to quite our worrisome thoughts simply by choosing consciously what to think about.
Begin to think about the best outcome to your worry or, simply begin thinking about something else. Doing this enough times will eventually train you to shut off negative thoughts right in their track.
2. Doubt
Doubt is one of the biggest dream killers out there in my opinion. It can literally have you questioning everything about yourself and your life. Questions like “Am I enough?” or “Will they like me?” can arise when we feel doubtful of ourselves and abilities.
This mistrust in ourselves is usually inherited through the opinions of others or by past experiences in which we have judged ourselves harshly.
So how we can stop the doubt? Affirmations are a powerful tool to use in this scenario. Literally speaking life to yourself on a daily basis can erase years of negative mental conditioning in It’s tracks.
Are you doubting your ability to get something done? be proactive. Get to working on it until It’s done. Action combined with positive self-talk can be a powerful antidote to doubt. After all, it helps to boost our confidence levels which is a step in the right direction if you plan on being successful.
3. Beliefs
We often times jump to ridiculous conclusions based solely on what we believe to be true. Many of these pre-conceived notions stem from us taking things out of context.
We may believe we are having a heart attack if we get chest pain because that is one of the main symptoms of a heart attack. However, there are dozens of other reasons people may have chest pain so It’s important to look at actual evidence first (other symptoms, overall health, age, etc) before making that conclusion and feeding into the fear.
When we begin to differentiate our out of context thoughts with what’s really true, we start to see that our beliefs are nothing more than false evidence appearing real (F.E.A.R.).
If you are going to be worry anyway
My hopes are that you take the worry and create real, tangible solutions instead of thinking of worst-case scenarios, and doubting your ability to overcome based on your false beliefs.
