It's extraordinary how we humans always tend to think more negatively than positively.
Not all of us, but I think it fair to say the majority.
If you pay me a nice compliment today, but someone said something negative about me yesterday, although I'd be delighted with what you said about me, I'd gravitate more towards the negative comment.
I'd allow that to take over my thinking, more than the compliment.
Do you suffer from intrusive thoughts? The point is that in almost all cases of General Anxiety Disorder, or G.
A.
D.
, the driving factor is anxious thinking.
This, then, would be typical.
Your compliment, so nice and welcome though it is, would take a back seat to the unpleasant comment, and I'd be far more likely to run this around in my mind, allowing it to fester.
But that's merely one, or rather two, comments.
Thinking in the negative certainly goes back to the days when self-preservation had to be uppermost in our minds.
Not necessarily thinking the worst all the time, but always on the lookout for anything that may be dangerous and that could cause us, and members of our tribe, harm.
After all, it isn't the thoughts themselves that cause us so much trouble.
It's how we respond to them.
Suppose we work in a shop that sells valuable antique china.
Naturally enough, we don't want to knock anything over, but the owner's so arranged the merchandise that, unless you're particularly clumsy, you're able to move around the shop in perfect safety.
Most of us would probably be all right.
We'd steer well clear of the pieces, but we wouldn't worry ourselves sick over whether or not we'll break any.
Unfortunately, the poor person who suffers with G.
A.
D.
won't be quite so lucky.
The worry and concern over breaking something will start to consume their life.
Now, thoughts are a form of energy.
Basically, they're neither good nor bad.
What they need is to be fed by attention, and to make them 'stick,' they need strong emotional attraction.
So the person with General Anxiety Disorder thinks about knocking something over and for a while, the thought just kicks around in their brain.
Then the more attention they give it, the more it likes it, then an emotional reaction sets in and there's the thought of knocking things over, literally being a bull in a china shop, stuck like glue to their mind.
Any type of negative thought may assail you, and it'll do so most forcefully when you're not engaged in any form of activity.
The worst thing you can do is to attempt to suppress the thought.
The more you try to do so, the more the thought attempts to 'stick.
' After all, it's receiving attention, isn't it, and that's just what it likes.
Not all of us, but I think it fair to say the majority.
If you pay me a nice compliment today, but someone said something negative about me yesterday, although I'd be delighted with what you said about me, I'd gravitate more towards the negative comment.
I'd allow that to take over my thinking, more than the compliment.
Do you suffer from intrusive thoughts? The point is that in almost all cases of General Anxiety Disorder, or G.
A.
D.
, the driving factor is anxious thinking.
This, then, would be typical.
Your compliment, so nice and welcome though it is, would take a back seat to the unpleasant comment, and I'd be far more likely to run this around in my mind, allowing it to fester.
But that's merely one, or rather two, comments.
Thinking in the negative certainly goes back to the days when self-preservation had to be uppermost in our minds.
Not necessarily thinking the worst all the time, but always on the lookout for anything that may be dangerous and that could cause us, and members of our tribe, harm.
After all, it isn't the thoughts themselves that cause us so much trouble.
It's how we respond to them.
Suppose we work in a shop that sells valuable antique china.
Naturally enough, we don't want to knock anything over, but the owner's so arranged the merchandise that, unless you're particularly clumsy, you're able to move around the shop in perfect safety.
Most of us would probably be all right.
We'd steer well clear of the pieces, but we wouldn't worry ourselves sick over whether or not we'll break any.
Unfortunately, the poor person who suffers with G.
A.
D.
won't be quite so lucky.
The worry and concern over breaking something will start to consume their life.
Now, thoughts are a form of energy.
Basically, they're neither good nor bad.
What they need is to be fed by attention, and to make them 'stick,' they need strong emotional attraction.
So the person with General Anxiety Disorder thinks about knocking something over and for a while, the thought just kicks around in their brain.
Then the more attention they give it, the more it likes it, then an emotional reaction sets in and there's the thought of knocking things over, literally being a bull in a china shop, stuck like glue to their mind.
Any type of negative thought may assail you, and it'll do so most forcefully when you're not engaged in any form of activity.
The worst thing you can do is to attempt to suppress the thought.
The more you try to do so, the more the thought attempts to 'stick.
' After all, it's receiving attention, isn't it, and that's just what it likes.
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