Health

Managing negative thoughts

19 January 2025 | Kuala Lumpur

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Thoughts are strings of words in our heads; they can influence the way we feel. Feelings are the emotions or sensations that we experience deep inside such as happiness, sadness, fear or anger; the way we think or feel can also influence our behavior.

Developed in the 1960s Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, is a psychological treatment that has been proven to be effective for a range of problems, including anxiety, stress and depression.

CBT explores the links between thoughts, feelings and behavior. It’s based on a number of core ideas, including:

Psychological difficulties can arise from unhelpful ways of thinking.
Learned patterns of unhelpful behavior can result in psychological problems.
It’s possible to develop skills to manage our mental wellbeing more effectively.

Our thoughts help us make sense of everything. Some are deliberate, but many come into our heads unannounced. Sometimes we can get into patterns of unhelpful thinking, particularly when we’re stressed. Now, we're going to take you through a series of steps to help you manage worry and unhelpful thinking.

We'll start by asking you to journal your thoughts. Journaling allows you a safe space in which you can articulate your thoughts and feelings; when negative thoughts are circling in your head all the time, this can lead to a cycle of stress and anxiety. Writing the thought down can help break the cycle by allowing you to take a step back from the situation.

Thoughts aren't necessarily facts, and sometimes, particularly when we're down, we can lean towards interpreting things in a negative way. In this program, you will learn about cognitive distortions, specific thinking traps, such as blaming ourselves or thinking in all-or-nothing terms and identify whether these apply to any of your thought patterns.

Finally, we will give you some techniques to balance your thinking. Repetitive thoughts often revolve around irrational or exaggerated worries. One technique in breaking the cycle of repetitive thoughts is to challenge your thinking and stop any negativity from becoming even more embedded. This can be highly effective in helping you see things in a more balanced way.

Mastering these skills will help you manage negative thoughts and the way you feel in the long term. It takes time and commitment to learn the skill, for it to work effectively.