Imagine: You’re driving to work while it’s raining and you’re late. When you arrive, the team meeting has already started. After the meeting, you open your email to find two clients who urgently need help and an email from a colleague saying they’ll be late for a project they’re working on together.
If you feel stressed when starting your day like this, this can easily put you in a negative mood at work too. They will lead to a series of negative thoughts ringing in your head.
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Why do we tend to think negatively?
Within the diverse range of human emotions, scientists have divided our emotions into 5 basic groups:
- Enjoy
- Angry
- Scared
- Hate
- Sad
Only 1 positive emotion appeared in the 5 groups above. Unfortunately, “unhappy” emotions often lead to negative thoughts and this is a natural biological mechanism of ours. It is called “Negativity Bias” and is the reason why people tend to think pessimistically rather than positively.
Every human since ancient times has paid attention to the five basic emotions, perhaps paying the most attention to the instinct of fear. Listening to your own thoughts is what helped our ancestors overcome fierce beasts. Fear and other negative emotions trigger the fight-or-flight response, releasing cortisol and other chemicals into our bloodstream, motivating us to tackle threatening situations.
Why do we tend to react in negative ways at work?
If our ancestors only knew how to give presentations at company meetings, they might not have felt so threatened. In the modern work environment, instincts and stress chemicals are responses carried over from our ancestors. This can lead to negative thoughts at work.
Work can be a place of many stressors. Therefore, when working, we easily fall into negative tendencies. Pessimism at work can come from many different reasons and manifest in different ways.
A person not feeling safe to speak up at work can lead to unhelpful thoughts, such as “no one will listen to me anyway,” “I will get in trouble if I say the wrong thing.” ” or “this group will never get along.” This comes from a lack of psychological safety.
People who don’t feel confident in their skills or knowledge can easily fall into thoughts like “I’ll never finish this project” or “I’ll never finish it on time.” there”. Managers and leaders may lack confidence, leading to thoughts such as “no one will see me as a leader” or “they will never follow me.”
No matter what type of stress we experience at work, it has the potential to cause us to fall into negative thinking. But if we know what to pay attention to, we can reframe our thinking and shift in a positive direction.
How are negative thoughts identified?
Psychologists have classified negative thoughts into recognizable patterns called cognitive distortions. Understanding the type of thoughts we are having is the first step to reframing those thoughts. Some types of cognitive distortions we commonly encounter include:
- Black and White Thinking: The tendency to see situations, people or experiences in two absolute extremes, with only right – wrong, good – bad, success – failure, etc. .. But in reality, there are many multidimensional aspects, there will be “gray areas” between black and white (for example: “Even though part of the project was good, overall I completely failed.” )
- Overgeneralizing: Attributing one or a limited set of experiences to all experiences (e.g., “I know my coworkers hate me so I won’t care if they smile at me.”)
- Personalizing : With this type of thinking, we tend to blame ourselves even for events beyond our control (e.g., “The customer never got back to me, That means I didn’t finish on time.”)
- Mental Filter: Focusing on negative details in a “sea of positives” (e.g., “I received a bad response, so the good feedback I received before is no longer available.” important.”)
- Mind-Reading: Believing you know what another person is thinking or feeling without actually verifying it with them (e.g., “I believe that co-worker hates me because they don’t talk with me.”)
- Catastrophizing: Believing that the worst will happen (e.g., “My boss scheduled a meeting with me, so I will definitely be fired.”)
- Jumping to conclusions: Making assumptions based on little or no evidence (e.g., “My supervisor did not give me immediate feedback on the project, so I must have done poorly.”)
These patterns can “seep” into our minds, creating thinking tendencies and holding us back. When we think negatively, we are less creative, less productive, and can even exhibit health problems. Positive thinking and success are linked. So let’s pay attention to readjust our thinking.
How to reframe negative thoughts
When we feel comfortable, there is little reason to analyze our thoughts. However, pessimistic thoughts require us to be more attentive in order to turn them into something useful/positive.
Reframing our thinking is not about preventing negativity from happening in the first place. As mentioned above, thinking this way is part of our nature. But we can learn to reframe our negative thoughts to overcome them and become happy and confident people.
A great way to reframe negative thoughts is to practice daily affirmations. Think of something positive you can say to a friend or relative. Empower yourself with your words and truly believe them. And say them in the present tense because stating something about yourself as a fact can help make it come true. Here are some suggested positive affirmations for you.
For working people:
- I know what I’m doing and I do it well.
- I am a valued member of my team.
- I have good ideas that will benefit the company.
For managers:
- I am a positive role model for others.
- I’m empowering employees so they can reach their full potential.
- I contribute meaningfully to our meetings.
For leaders:
- I embody the company’s mission.
- I inspire others with my words and actions.
- I am a good leader who cares about my employees.
These success affirmations can create a more positive attitude at work and limit negative thoughts
