{"id":33306,"date":"2018-01-24T14:07:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T19:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=33306"},"modified":"2018-01-23T14:10:18","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T19:10:18","slug":"combating-self-doubt-the-importance-of-positive-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2018\/01\/24\/combating-self-doubt-the-importance-of-positive-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Combating self doubt– the importance of positive thinking."},"content":{"rendered":"I often forget how much control I have over my own thoughts. My mind is so wrapped up in pushing through assignments and obligations and social events that when I start to feel overwhelmed by insecurities I usually just give up. I find myself wrapped up in blankets staring wistfully out my window while dramatic movie scores play un-reassuringly on in the background. It\u2019s hard to remember the importance of taking care of my own mental health when it seems like I have no time to.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s so easy, when it appears I can\u2019t handle something, to tell myself that that\u2019s the truth. Giving in to negativity and fear in the face of being overwhelmed is the simplest thing- but if I want to be able to make progress with my school work and my mental state, I\u2019ll have to start at the very base of my problem. I must change the way I think.\r\n\r\n
\"an
I find that going for walks really helps me to refresh my headspace in times of stress, here's a photo I took while on one of these walks!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nSure, life can externally be too much at times, but it doesn\u2019t help that I\u2019m always internalizing my fears and making things look so much worse. To put it metaphorically, my outlook toward a dilemma is kind of like a movie soundtrack (again, yes- they just make me so emotional), a scene is changed dramatically by the sounds playing in the background. If a character comes across a problem and there is a suspenseful, tense tune accompanying their contemplation, we assume failure is inevitable. However, if the music is inspirational and upbeat, it almost seems impossible for the protagonist to give in. That\u2019s the same way that my own thoughts change the way I approach something. If I have terrible writer\u2019s block when I\u2019m supposed to be writing an essay for my literature class (my situation right now) and all I\u2019m thinking is \u201cthis is going to suck so bad. My essay is going to be so forced\u201d then that\u2019s likely how it will end up; a self-fulfilling prophecy. In contrast, if I\u2019m thinking \u201cwriter\u2019s block ends eventually, I can always edit it and make it better, I\u2019ve written great essays in the passed\u201d, then impending doom stops seeming so impending.\r\n\r\n
\"A
Finding small things to appreciate about the world around you is a constructive step toward achieving a less pessimistic mindframe- for me, these small things reside in the beauty of nature.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nNot only does this philosophy apply to school work, but it can be used when regarding issues of social anxiety as well. If I walk away from an interaction (either with a stranger or a close friend) that didn\u2019t go as smoothly as I\u2019d hoped and I\u2019m thinking \u201cthis person didn\u2019t think I was funny, I\u2019m an embarrassment\u201d then those thoughts are going to soil the whole day, leaving me more anxious than I was before and afraid of the next time I see them-or anyone. In reality, I don\u2019t know how that person feels about me, and I can\u2019t be sure if they even cared that my joke fell flat. Most of the time people aren\u2019t even phased by the things I toss and turn at night about, because everyone is too busy with their own lives to really spend much energy contemplating my own faults (I find this thought incredibly reassuring). Instead I need to tell myself that I\u2019ll do better next time, all that matters is my own confidence and how much I care about that other person.\r\n\r\nIn the end, even if I can\u2019t completely dispel my anxiety, I feel significantly better when I put effort into teaching myself how to stay positive. A lot of my bad moods are my own doing, and as soon as I realized this and started working toward solving that problem, I felt relieved and more easy going.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nI often forget how much control I have over my own thoughts. My mind is so wrapped up in pushing through assignments and obligations and social events that when I start to feel overwhelmed by insecurities I usually just give…\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Combating self doubt– the importance of positive thinking.”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Combating self doubt– the importance of positive thinking.”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":33309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,58,67],"tags":[1905,86,88,1439,138,286,85],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33306"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33312,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33306\/revisions\/33312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}