The field of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) emphasizes that negative thought patterns can have a profound effect on our physical and mental well-being. How we perceive a situation or even our day-to-day life can lead to higher stress levels and ultimately contribute to anxiety and depression. Research suggests that many of the thoughts that we think are repetitive and can be negative. This is often referred to as the negativity bias of our brain. Our brains are primed to pay attention to, focus on, and remember the negative things that occur. Negative experiences are like Velcro, they tend to stick to us causing us to worry or ruminate about them long after they happen.

When we’re not paying attention to our thought patterns, it’s easy for our minds to fall into a playback loop—thinking repetitive thoughts each and every day. Depression, for example, is linked to negative beliefs related to hopelessness and helplessness. Anxiety disorders are linked to thoughts of future possibility of danger and threat. When we start to pay attention through some simple practices, we can notice the quiet ways we get stuck in negative patterns and then we can begin to reshape our thinking in more constructive ways. Many psychological disorders can be treated and prevented, and stress can be reduced by carefully examining and restructuring our thinking to be more accurate.

It can take some work to retrain our brain, as our thought patterns are often ingrained. Thinking of your mind as its own inner environment, take some time to reflect on the types of thoughts that you want occurring there. You might ask yourself, What kinds of thoughts do I want guiding my life? What kinds of thoughts would feel supportive and make me more resilient in the face of stress? What kinds of negative thoughts am I willing to let go of? With a little bit of work, you can choose to think thoughts that reflect the direction you want to be going, and reduce the ones that keep you stuck where you’ve been. You can develop the capacity through enhanced awareness, and practice to choose thoughts that serve you well or release thoughts that are no longer useful from the past.¹

Listed below are four steps to help you become more aware of your thought patterns and how to work with them.