A thought is a mental event that has form, energy, and content. Although there’s no conclusive evidence on how many thoughts an average person has in a day, possibly between 12,000 and 50,000, we do know that a significant number are negative; as a rule of thumb, we tend to have twice as many negative thoughts as positive ones. We also know from research that our mind wanders away from what we are doing around for almost half of our waking day and that people reported feeling more negative when their attention drifted off in automatic thoughts. So why do we have automatic negative thoughts and what can we do about it?
The primary reason we have more negative thoughts is that our attention and mental processing is prioritized towards things we perceive as a threat, rather than to things we see as safe. This “negativity bias”, which extends to thoughts that are negative, rather than positive or neutral, is hard-wired in the brain as part of our evolutionary inheritance. Although our negativity bias provides one answer, there are other reasons why automatic thoughts tend to drift toward the negative.
Another source, by way of a useful analogy, comes from advances in online technology. When you browse websites, have you ever wondered how that site knows that you’ve been looking for a bread-maker, as similar products keep appearing? Tracking data is used by algorithms to present relevant products. based on your previous browsing and shopping history. This machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence, has the goal of enticing your attention away from the page to click on a product or other content.
When you are watching a particular video on YouTube, you can easily find that you have been drawn into viewing others. You probably clicked on an item in the “Up next” section, where the algorithm displays content that’s related to what you’re watching. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the “Up next” content is designed to grab your attention and is sometimes a bit more extreme, or controversial. For instance, if you’re looking at vegetarian meals, you may see vegan ones listed; if you’re watching a speech by a prominent politician, you may see more extreme political, or negative, attention-grabbing suggestions. These automatic algorithms operate to grab and hold your attention, which is very similar to what happens when our attention gets pulled into automatic thoughts.
Research shows that a significant number of thoughts are the same. Like the cow paths created when cows habitually follow the same route across a field, repeated thoughts follow the well-trodden pathways in our brains. When we repeat an experience, the brain learns to trigger the same connections each time. The phrase, “neurons that fire together wire together”, supports the idea that habitual thoughts appear in a similar way to the algorithms that display adverts on the websites we visit.
We also experience automatic negative thoughts that arise from negative feelings we’re holding in our bodies. For instance, these could be feelings of anxiety, anger, or low self-worth. If we’re holding negativity in the body, it’s no wonder that negative thoughts emerge. We can learn to recognise automatic negative thoughts as they are:
- Rarely the result of clear, deliberate, or purposeful thinking.
- Habitual and tend to repeat and reinforce previously held stories, beliefs, and feelings about us.
- Generally unhelpful, limiting, and depleting.
Negative thoughts often come from our inner critic, our internal dialogue which provides a negative running commentary on our experience. For example, “I’m worthless, stupid, useless, a failure, or not good enough”. As thoughts and emotions are interconnected, when we identify with negative thoughts, we can also trigger related feelings, so feel worthless, or not good enough, which puts us in a low mood. Worrying negative thoughts can also trigger anxiety and stress responses. This is about our relationship with ourselves. It’s been said that if we talked to our friends in the same way we sometimes talk to ourselves, then no one would want to know us. When we believe and strongly identify with negative thoughts, related feelings, and physical tension, they can become the normalised, day-to-day background of our experience.
By developing our awareness and working skilfully with our present-moment experience; knowing that we are always more than our thoughts and emotions, we can transform the limiting habits that no longer serve us and become the open, calm, compassionate, and expansive awareness of who we really are.
Suggested weekly practice
- Practise focusing your attention on your breath and remaining alert to your attention being distracted into unintentional mind wandering. Acknowledge the thoughts that drew your attention away and bring it back to the breath.
- Work on refining the skill of meta-awareness, when you notice thoughts, see if they are limiting, depleting, and negative, or expanding, nurturing, and positive.
- When you notice negative thoughts, simply observe the thoughts as they are without trying to change them. All you need to do to reduce negative recurring thoughts is to consciously observe them as simply mental content that no longer serves you.
Guidance
Find somewhere undisturbed and sit in a comfortable, dignified, and upright posture, where you can remain alert and aware.
There are two guided practices for this session. You can close your eyes, or lower your gaze while the meditations play.
- Play the settling practice, then read through the session content, which you can print off if that helps
- Then play the second audio to explore and experience noticing and working with thoughts as they arise.
