Self-deprecating thoughts are all the mean, nasty, ugly, distressing, devaluing things you say about yourself. Regardless of whether or not you say them out loud, these thoughts keep you confined to a prison of your own making.
It’s been said that each day we have about 50,000 thoughts. Research shows that 80-90% of these thoughts are negative.
Bad, negative thoughts are a common symptom of anxiety.
Unfortunately, these bad thoughts tend to only create more anxiety. This makes it harder to cure without help. For many of us, it leaves us running in place. How we speak to ourselves affects every aspect of our lives. And it directly influences the reality we create and the results we receive.
The more you have these thoughts and the more you try to fight them, the more likely they are to occur. It is an endless cycle. Many people with negative thinking find that when they try as hard as they can to dispute their thoughts, the negative thoughts seem to increase in frequency. This is the exact opposite of what you want.
This is because the anxious brain does something very exasperating. The anxious brain reminds you of the thoughts you don’t want to have. In other words, the more you try to fight a thought away and the more shame you feel over having the thought, therefore, the more likely it is to come back.
Thinking poorly about yourself is a form of self-rejection. You see something about yourself that you think is unlovable, stupid, embarrassing or ugly. You think criticizing yourself will somehow make it go away. It won’t. It will actually make it a lot worse.
There is no magic formula to change self-deprecating thoughts over night. It took a lot of years, effort and time to get to this point in the first place. The difficulty isn’t that you have the negative thoughts. The problem occurs when you believe the thoughts to be true.
Depression, poor self-esteem, and anxiety are often the result of irrational negative thoughts. Challenging irrational thoughts can help us change them.
“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.Watch your words, for they become actions.Watch your actions, for they become habits.Watch your habits, for they become character.Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
If you want to change your insecure feelings and increase your self-esteem, challenging the negative thoughts and practicing this skill daily is extremely important. You are not your negative thoughts.
Carrie
