How to challenge negative thoughts

By M.Farouk Radwan, MSc.

When people scare you

Since i was a teen i was very passionate about the gym. I used to exercise 3 days times a week and i couldn't imagine myself not doing it. I was very slim and this annoyed me so much but after years of training i managed to change my body shape and become satisfied with the new one.

One day while i was trying to learn boxing i punched the wall and broke my arm. I didn't realize it had to be put in cast before i saw a doctor.

I didn't feel its a serious problem until i met that doctor who told me that i have to stop for at least 3 month. I couldn't imagine spending my life without the gym for 3 month and i started to believe that i will lose all the muscles i made over the past years. (see also Dealing with bad medical news)

When i saw another doctor he gave me an even worse news. He told me that i have to stop going to the gym for six months. I felt really bad because i knew for sure that a six month period will certainly wipe all the gains i made since i began training.

How to challenge negative thoughts

There are so many facts i discovered during that phase of my life. I learned that a problem might seem much bigger right after you listen to people. After all I was feeling alright until i met those doctors. (see Is talking about my problems a good idea)

I also discovered that experts sometimes give false information depending on their personalities. The doctor who told me that i have to stop for 6 months had serious problems with anxiety. The man used to worry about everything and to expect the worst and this is why he gave me such an advice.

After few days i managed to convince myself that i can be alright fast but i started facing another problem. Each time a person saw me with cast in hand he kept warning me about the complications that happened to his distant relative because he returned to training soon after he removed the cast.

During that phase i discovered that the best thing to do if you want to stay positive is to avoid talking to most people about your plans. Most people just keep repeating the stories they heard without realizing that each case is a totally different one.

So what happened to my arm?

I decided not to listen to anyone and i started reading online about fast recovery techniques. The first fact i discovered after few hours of reading is that a broken bone becomes stronger right after healing and the cross section that was broken hardly breaks again!

After 5 weeks i was back to the gym lifting light weights and before the 7th week i was lifting my heavy weights again. So what's the moral of the story?

Sometimes people will spray you with negativity and change your beliefs about something. Choosing the ones you talk to is the best thing you can do to stay positive.

More than 50% of fighting negativity and negative thoughts is avoiding negative people or at least avoiding telling them about your plans.

Whether we like it or not we get exposed to a tremendous amount of negativity in our lives. If we didn't balance this negativity with an equivalent amount of positivity we will certainly become pessimistic, sad and eventually depressed.

This is why we launched Optimistnet The Social network for positivity, motivation and inspirational content only! Join Optimistnet today, follow positive people and get your daily dose of positivity.

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