How to stop negative thoughts

Now that's a problem you wish you didn't have. Negative thoughts. Either about the future, or about a current situation. Worrying is the mind's default state. It's not a bug (malfunction), it's a feature. That's how you survive. But it becomes a problem when the mind is left unchecked. Then it will get into a negative feedback loop and produce bigger and darker thoughts. That's pain.

I've found a solution.

The other day I was in my local Muay Thai class and our Instructor was teaching us about rhythm. Specifically, when we get attacked we should break the attacker's rhythm. The logic comes from a common practice: when attacking, you deliver more than one hits (that's a combo). So, when you get attacked, you block the attack. And since you expect more hits, you don't wait for them to land, you immediately counter-attack. That way you break the attacker's rhythm. The result: you get hit less.

Do you see the analogy?

When the mind attacks with a negative thought, you don't wait for it to stop so you can feel better. You block it. Then, you attack it with a combo of positive thoughts. Whatever the situation you're in, there's something positive in there. I'm not talking about hopeful thoughts like "it will get better" and the likes. I'm talking about concrete positive thoughts. Like, how good you've handled similar situations in the past. Or, how you can find a lesson in that difficult problem which will lead to overcoming it. These kind of thoughts.

Yes, it's simple. Yes, it works. Also yes, it's difficult. So start practicing.

It will come to a point where you'll sense when the mind is going to attack you. Before it does, you'll quickly respond with positive thoughts.

Now, our Instructor prefers we don't get hit at all. Even if you block it, a hit is a hit. He wants us to get to the level that we can avoid incoming attacks. That's level 2, being proactive. But since it takes time to reach that body-fluency, and we're definitely gonna get hit, we need to go through level 1. Being reactive. That's blocking and then attacking back.

To continue our analogy: Level 2 is to avoid the attacks of the mind. To get to that state, you overwhelm it with positive thoughts. All the time. Be proactive and don't give to it the opportunity to generate negativity.

Practice.