A Good Girl's Guide to Murder Worry and Anxiety

By Catherine Worren

Stress, anxiety and toxic thoughts are one of the biggest problems plaguing our teens in this day and age. The root of the problem is not the stress, anxiety and toxic thoughts that our daughters and sisters suffer from but instead it's their inability and hesitation to share those thoughts with anyone. This makes the pr

• Language: English
• Publisher: Catherine Worren
• Release date: Oct 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781956259735

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A Good Girl's Guide

to Murder

Worry & Anxiety

***

HOW TO HEAL TOXIC THOUGHTS AND BE THE BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF!

Catherine Worren

COPYRIGHT © 2022

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Table of Contents

1.     Toxic Thinking & It’s Disastrous Effects

2.     Know Anxiety & Understand How it Works

3.     Identifying Toxic Anxious Thoughts

4.     Meet & Greet All Your Feelings

5.     Manage Emotions

6.     Mindfulness Tools & Exercises to Take Control of Your Life

7.     Practice Saying Yes

8.     Navigate Social Stress

9.     Kill the Panic Attacks

10.       Master the Art of Conversation

11.       Move Forward with the Best Version of Yourself

12.       Conclusion

13.       References

1.      Toxic Thinking & It’s Disastrous Effects

Your mental and emotional state might have an impact on your physical wellbeing. Emotions have a tendency to flow freely and without causing any harm to our health when they are openly experienced and expressed without the attachment or judgment of others. On the other side, repressing emotions (especially those that are associated with fear or are unpleasant) can deplete mental energy, have a detrimental effect on the body, and eventually lead to health issues.

It is essential for us to acknowledge our thoughts and feelings and be conscious of the impact they have, not just on one another, as well as on our bodies, behaviors, and the connections we have with other people.

Negative emotions that are not properly regulated might be harmful to one's health.

Chronic stress can disrupt the body's hormone balance, deplete the brain chemicals necessary for happiness, and weaken the immune system. Negative attitudes and feelings of helplessness and despair can contribute to the development of chronic stress. It's been shown that prolonged stress can shorten our lives. (Recent research has shown that anxiety shortens our telomeres, which are the end caps at the end of each strand of DNA in our bodies; this accelerates the aging process.)

Anger (hostility) that is not properly channeled or repressed has been linked to a wide range of adverse health outcomes, including hypertension (high blood pressure), cardiovascular disease (CVD), digestive issues, and infection.

What Exactly Constitutes Toxic Thinking?

We all have negative thoughts from time to time, but dwelling on the negative all the time can be detrimental to your mental wellbeing, leaving you feeling worried and unhappy as a result.

If you're the type of person who takes the time to analyze your thoughts, it can be difficult to tell the difference between negative thinking and the everyday anxieties that everyone has. It is natural to experience feelings of sadness in response to a traumatic occurrence, just as it is natural to experience feelings of anxiety in response to the pressures of one's finances or the challenges of one's relationships on occasion. Problems start to emerge, however, when these emotions are experienced on a regular basis and are widespread throughout one's life (Why I'm So Negative, Angry, and Depressed?).

According to the definition of negative thinking provided by Rethink Mental Illness, negative thinking is a pattern of thinking badly about oneself as well as one's environment. Negative thoughts are something that everyone experiences on occasion; however, negative thinking that has a serious impact on the way you think about yourself and the world and even interferes with your ability to work, study, or function normally in everyday life may be a symptom of a mental illness. Some mental illnesses include depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and schizophrenia.

Just as not everyone who thinks negatively also has a mental illness, the same cannot be said for those who are mentally ill but do not think negatively on a regular basis. When you can't stop thinking negative thoughts, they might have a significant impact on your mental health and quality of life. There are, thankfully, ways to put an end to negative thoughts, but in order to do so, you must first investigate the factors that contribute to their occurrence.

Recognizing Unproductive Thoughts and Behaviours

A cycle of negative thinking is something that can happen to everyone, and according to scientists, there may be a physiological explanation for why this happens. When the amygdala, the region of the brain that is thought to play a significant part in the regulation of feelings, is stimulated, it stays in that state for a considerable amount of time. Concurrently, a recollection of the event begins to solidify in the mind at the same time. The more intense the experience was, the more vivid and long-lasting the memory would be.

Over the course of time, particular recollections grow to be associated with particular feelings. For instance, if you're feeling nervous, it may bring up the memory of getting fired from a job many years ago, and you may continue to have this feeling as a result. When this happens for an extended period of time, it is referred to as flooding, and it causes every terrible experience you've ever had to rush into your mind all at once.

Negative emotions are like alarm bells, ringing to get our attention and letting us know that something is wrong, therefore it's likely that this process evolved to aid in our survival and get us ready for the worst case scenario. In the meantime, the body releases hormones known as fight or flight, which cause us to feel tight.

How the Habit of Negative/Toxic Thinking Begins

It's possible that our upbringing is the root cause of why we have a predisposition to have more frequent negative thoughts than other people. There is a vast range of parenting philosophies. In an effort to protect their children from harm, some parents run through all the scenarios that could go wrong and explain them to their kids. Although this strategy might be effective, it carries with it the risk of the youngster acquiring anxiety, becoming pessimistic about life in general, and anticipating the worst possible outcome in any circumstance.

A further contributor is when parents criticize their children an excessive amount, which might result in the development of a pessimistic mental framework. It's possible that you were raised with a big list of things that you should and must do, making it difficult for you to relax. It is challenging to break free of the routine of daily responsibilities and adopt a fresh perspective when life has become a string of obligations.

Common pitfalls associated with pessimistic thinking:

When you tell yourself not to do something, you are really increasing the likelihood that you will go ahead and do it. It is your parents and instructors that have the command voice. Don't forget that you are in command now.

One setback does not prove that you are doomed to repeat the experience or that life is conspiring against you. Avoid making overly broad statements by using terms like always and never.

You might believe that you are to blame, but if you take a step back, you'll probably see that the unfortunate occurrence was not due to anything you did. Consider the circumstances around the event while maintaining composure and focusing on the facts. [1]

Why Do People Have Such a Pessimistic Way of Thinking?

Despite the fact that positive thinking has been shown by scientific research to increase mental wellbeing, reduce stress, and even contribute to improved cardiovascular health, many of us continue to follow thought patterns that are unproductively negative. Let's investigate the impact that negative thinking has on mental wellbeing while also looking into solutions to break the cycle of negativity.

There is a wide variety of reasons for negative thinking. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and other mental health conditions may all have the symptom of intrusive unpleasant thoughts. Because negative thinking and depression feed off of one other, both conditions share the symptom of negative thinking as one of their hallmarks. Toxic thinking can be an indicator of mental illness, but it also has the potential to be a natural and healthy part of life. However, negative ideas can have a significant impact on your life, and it is in your best interest to determine the root of these thoughts, no matter what inspired them.

There are three primary reasons that people think unfavorable ideas.

People frequently worry about the future because they do not know what lies ahead of them and they are afraid of the unknown. This frequently results in catastrophizing, which can be defined as the practice of constantly expecting failure and catastrophe. It doesn't matter how you look at it; spending time and effort worrying about the future is a waste of both. Accepting that there is a limit to what you can alter in the future and making an effort to instead focus on the now is the key to letting go of these negative ideas and moving on with your life.

Concerns regarding the here and now It's natural to feel concerned about the here and now. There are a lot of people who worry about what other people think of them, whether or not they are doing a good job at work, and how bad the traffic will be on their way home. People who are prone to negative thinking frequently imagine the worst possible outcome, such as everyone in the office disliking them, their supervisor being about to tell them they've done poor job, and being late to pick up their children because of traffic. Once again, this is because people are afraid of losing control. Although organization and regularity can be helpful in eradicating negative thoughts, you may also find that engaging in some form of practical treatment is necessary.

Have you ever found yourself unable to go asleep because you were preoccupied with something that happened a week ago, or even a year ago? Negative thinkers have a tendency to linger on past mistakes and failures more than others do, while everyone makes and speaks embarrassing mistakes and comments at some point in their lives. Accepting that the event took place and thinking about how you could work to avoid it from happening again in the future is, of course, a more productive way to tackle mistakes that have occurred.

The Detrimental Effects of Unhealthy Thoughts

Things don't always go well in life. However, by having a pessimistic outlook on life, we make it more difficult for ourselves. Let's get one thing straight before I go on to explain how it affects us. If you're going through a difficult period, it's only natural that you'll be thinking back on your past experiences in an effort to derive some kind of understanding and ultimately meaningful lesson from them. That is not the topic that we are discussing at this time. When I talk about choosing a negative perspective over a more positive one, I'm referring to the conditioned behavior and automatic response that comes along with making that decision.

An Optimistic approach is also not the answer to this problem. In point of fact, doing so has no effect whatsoever on solving the problem and, at most, only delays its resolution. For the purposes of this discussion, we are referring to the practice of perpetually viewing the glass as being only half full and focusing solely on locating faults and deficiencies, as opposed to looking for the positive aspects of something or someone. Now, keeping all of that in mind, let's get started.

The effect of having negative thoughts has a wide sphere of influence. There is no aspect of your life in which it is not present. It has an impact on your mental state as well as your emotional and physical well-being. It restricts both your ability to succeed and your freedom to enjoy life.

There are primarily two outcomes that come about as a result of negative thinking in your life:

Your disposition and perspective on life will suffer as a result of this, unfortunately. The simple act of thinking negative ideas can lead to a variety of negative emotions, including sadness, fear, anger, hopelessness, and a general sense of negativity. Your perspective on the world is tainted as a result of these feelings. When you believe that everyone and everything has bad intentions, you will, at best, be cautious and untrusting. You can be hesitant to try something new or say something because you're imagining a bad result, and you might skip prospective opportunities because your negative self-talk is encouraging you not to take advantage of them.

Your ability to accomplish goals will be hampered by thinking negatively. There are always going to be forces pulling you in the direction of your goal and other forces pushing you in the opposite direction. When you have a negative attitude toward the achievement of a goal, it makes it far more difficult for you to achieve that goal. Comparing this to going with the flow of the water, which is smooth and easy, is like wading through muck.

Imagine that you would like to go on vacation to a place that is quite different from where you now are, but also very far away from where you presently are. Your desire to go to various far locations dates back to the beginning of your life. And then you start considering other aspects of the situation.

That once-in-a-lifetime vacation to that faraway exotic location doesn't seem like such a pipe dream any more, does it? When you think in a negative way, achieving your goals will appear more difficult than they actually are. These two adverse impacts have an impact on the whole situation. However, there are further repercussions as a result of this.

It is not good for your health in any way. Negative thinking is a source of unrelenting stress, which in turn creates stress-related symptoms, illness, and conditions, and even disease.

It is detrimental to your sense of self-worth. It is detrimental to one's self-esteem to believe that they are overweight, unfit, unattractive, or unable to perform certain tasks, as well as any other negative label that they have given themselves.

Your