2017: The Year of Positive Thoughts

Like quitting cigarettes, negative thoughts are not easy to stop having. “The Year of Conquering Negative Thinking,” by Lesley Alderman, states that this year people should try to have positive thoughts to minimize depression and stress. Humans evolve to contemplate bad experiences to avoid danger and to handle a crisis more quickly. Dr. Judith Beck, a psychologist and president of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, said that negative thoughts come naturally to individuals because of genetics and to people that were bullied as kids. Physiologists say that negative thinking can be tamed, but humans are built to grow and learn from bad experiences. Dr. Beck said that having awful thoughts is acceptable, but having thoughts that come after are not reasonable. For example, Dr. Beck gave this scenario: “Your partner has left you for someone else. “My partner doesn’t love me anymore,” might be accurate, said Dr. Beck, but “No one else will ever love me,” is probably not.”  Dr. Beck’s point is agreeable. People should try to be more optimistic, but it is part of human nature to be defensive and think about the future including all situations.



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