Addicted to Feeling Bad

Speaker Notes

Do you ever find yourself thinking the same thoughts over and over?

It’s like your brain is on autopilot. 

You might not even remember what triggered it, but you end up feeling stressed out and depressed.

Because it seems like these autopilot thoughts always tend to be negative.

The truth is that these thoughts you have are an addiction.

Yes. You can become addicted to thinking negative thoughts!

Has this ever happened to you?

You’re having a good day . . . at least an OK day. Nothing is wrong. It’s just a normal day. 

Then something triggers a memory. You remember something that made you mad – argument, getting put down, jerk of a driver cut you off . . . took your parking space.

Memory could be from last week or last decade.

All the same emotions come back and you’re pissed off all over again.

If this happens to you, it could be an addiction. Yes, you can be addicted to negative thoughts.

It starts with how your brain works.

Every thought you think produces a corresponding chemical reaction in your body – an emotion – tied to that thought. 

Your body then sends those chemicals back to your brain to reinforce the thought you’re thinking.

This happens in a fraction of a second. 

Then you replay the thought again and create a loop of thought and neurochemicals in your body.

Example:

Someone cuts you off in traffic or takes your parking spot. 

Thought: “What an asshole.” (jerk)

Emotion: Anger.

Chemical: Adrenaline – fight or flight. (Also other chemicals) 

Replay: Experience the scene and emotion and chemicals all over again. – several loops.

Once this happens, your day often goes downhill. Everything falls apart and it feels like everyone and everything is working to piss you off and ruin your day.

You have hundreds of these thought/emotion/ neurochemical loops happen every day, and your brain stores them in memory.

And your body can’t tell the difference between the original event and the memory.

You can recall this event years or decades later and experience the same emotions and neurochemical response.

These loops of thoughts and emotions form patterns of thinking. And these patterns create a neurochemical state in your body. 

Your body adapts to this state as “normal.” Whether it’s healthy or not.

Memory file folder: Things that piss me off.

News

Traffic

Politics on Facebook

Clueless people who don’t agree with me.

Your body adapts to the chemicals associated with all the things that annoy you.

Perpetual stress response. 

When you’re having a series of good days, the stress chemicals drop in your body.

Your body registers it as “abnormal” and will conspire with your subconscious mind to make you think about that jerk who took your parking space last summer.

Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a memory and the original event, so it produces all those stress chemicals and your body gets back to what it thinks is “normal.”

Positive thinking, affirmations, and keeping a gratitude journal are all good ideas, but they don’t really help when your body is chemically addicted to stress and chaos.

Solution: Manage thoughts AND emotions to create new loops & neurochemical state in your body.

Mindset coaching I do is for both thoughts and emotions. 

That’s why I talk about body awareness and the mind/body connection. Emotions are felt in your body because of the neurochemical response to your thoughts.

And ultramarathon running is an example of how your mind and body have to work together.

Quote: Running is 90% mental and the other half is physical.

In an ultramarathon it’s your thoughts and emotions that get you across the finish line.

Your body will try to convince your mind that it can’t go on. When you push through that resistance, an hour later you feel like you can run forever.

You have to learn to manage both the lows and the highs.

You can manage your thoughts and emotions, but there has to be a link between your mind and your body.

Positive thinking, by itself, isn’t enough to get you through either an ultramarathon or those automatic negative thoughts your body is addicted to.

If you want to run far or learn how to get unstuck from all those automatic thought-loops that drag you down, I can help you. I offer a free 25 minute mindset reset.

Ultramindsetpodcast.run – schedule a time.