I recently chose to reread a book that I bought a little while ago (David D. Burns’ Feeling Good) with hopes that I could actually get something out of it this time. In the book there’s this exercise in which the reader pinpoints all of his/her negative thoughts and tries to rewrite them into something more positive and realistic. I made the decision to physically perform this task and was overwhelmed by the amount of negative thoughts that subconsciously run through my mind throughout the day.

I hadn’t done anything incredibly defeating that day. It was an average day, actually. Went to class, went to work, came home. But through that entire day I still managed to say a lot of really bad things about myself and others. They were quick thoughts, but they were still thoughts.

Though I nothing drastic happened to cause me to become overly self-loathing, I was still saying hateful things in my head. And even though they were small things, they were all small negative things. A bunch of small negative thoughts turn into a large Negative Mentality. And a negative mentality can result in an incredibly negative life.

Simple exercise, but incredibly useful. Think better and you’ll be better. Not to mention you’ll become more self-aware. Say nice things to yourself and others. See how much better things become.

“Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.”

– Aldous Huxley