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I am not a negative thinker.

Just repeating the affirmation to yourself may improve your day to day outlook. In fact, so-called stress experts offer that the best recipe for negative thinking is…thinking positive! The experts estimate that upwards of 80% of our daily thoughts are downbeat and all that negative thinking is straining our individual and societal health.

I am not a negative thinker.

Myself, I have on occasion been accused of wallowing in the negative. I’m shocked. Shocked, I say, that someone would meet me and think I wasn’t all sunshine and marigolds. Do I unknowingly spend 80% of my daily allocation of thoughts on damaging, discouraging, unhealthy thinking? Who? Me?

I am not a negative thinker.

We live in a negative-rich environment. So while the individual must take responsibility for their own outlook, the fact is it’s hard to maintain a positive attitude living in modern society. Think about ways that our negative state is perpetuated. Many of us spend our days in the office, dealing with detestable, back-stabbing, self-serving coworkers, clueless bosses and impersonal senior management. Our lives are more media-rich. We are exposed to many more negative images through the media, and our sources for such are vast between television networks, personal blogs and podcasts, newspapers and radio. News is now 24/7 which heightens our awareness of the conditions and deteriorations of our neighbors, our nation and our world. We are jacked up by continuous jolts of coffee, soda and energy drinks. Stimulants keep our body racing, our central nervous system on overdrive, kind of like revving your engine to get up that hill but then never shifting back down to a lower gear.

These factors, each taken on its own, are not overwhelming circumstances. But taken together, compounded by many other substantial stressors of economic, political and financial import, is it any wonder that we spend so much of our time in the negative? Stress, anxiety and worry are cumulative and cyclical. How the hell are we supposed to stay positive when the world keeps beating us down and down and down!

I am not a negative thinker.

Despite what you may take away from this article, I don’t consider myself a negative person. I am definitely a cynic; I like to question things. I like to question people’s motives and understand how they make decisions. I like to try and perceive the world through their eyes, see what they see.

But if you accused me of being a negative thinker? Yeah, I can buy that. Assuming you can make a distinction between thinking negative and being a negative person (I already hear naysayers firing up their keyboard to leave comments after this post. Go for it, I dare you!) But just let me make my argument first.

Some people exude negativity. They don’t like their jobs or they don’t like their apartment. Their bosses are always jerks and people always treat them unfairly. They can’t perceive the value in even little things, whether at work, at home, on the subway, in the grocery store. Bordering on paranoia, everyone and everything beats down on them.

On the other hand, sometimes people are in a negative space for perfectly legitimate reasons, usually temporary or stimulated by a specific stressor.

If you accept the distinction, a negative person then is defined by the former definition. I, myself, can also believe the almost clinical deduction that we are spending a grossly disproportionate amount of time thinking negative. Maybe 80%? (Does it make me a negative person to say so?) If nothing else, there is a lot of negative energy that is a package deal of modern living.

I don’t consider myself a negative person because I don’t think everything in my life sucks. But I do think it sometimes takes a conscious effort to push aside the negative and embrace the positive. Isn’t that true for most of us?

Well, assuming I am either a negative thinker or (if you must) a negative person, what’s a person to do?

Practice Daily Affirmation
And while you’re at it, turn that frown upside down. Just the conscious act of smiling can force you to consider life in the positive.

Lay off the Caffeine
A laudable notion, easier to never have begun to begin with.

Take a Deep Breath
I don’t know if this works but it’s a cheap and easy way to address negativity. The theory goes that as we grow older, we stop breathing from our abdomen and begin breathing exclusively from our throat. Maybe just consciously taking a deep breath can reinforce a positive vibe.

Detox from the stimulation
Turn off the TV, unplug the laptop, etc. This is probably healthy to do once in a while for any number of reasons.

And the obvious one, and the hardest to accomplish, is
Remove the source of stress

Here’s the thing, whether I am a negative thinker or just perceived as a negative person (no, I’m not backing off that one) I think it’s a great idea to work towards a more positive outlook. If that means using all five of these suggestions or coming up with others, I think it is a great plan. In defiance of a world that continues to beat us down, we should rise up, breath deeply, unplug, detox and say to ourselves, as often as necessary

I am not a negative thinker

until it’s true.