Many people perceive the winter season as an accommodation to the exciting and fresh changes that come with a new year. Indeed, we may personally struggle with negative thoughts, or perhaps we even have a relative who struggles with negative self-evaluations during the extended winter days of truncated sunshine.
Research published by the National Library of Medicine revealed that “14 percent of the adult US population suffers from a lesser form of seasonal mood changes, known as winter blues.” It adds, “That four percent of American adults suffer from ‘seasonal affective disorder’ during the winter months.”
Comments we say to ourselves that are unhealthy yet think are healthy can include an assumption that self-criticism prevents us from becoming arrogant, insisting that negative appraisals push us to do better, or that making mistakes means we cannot accomplish what we are pursuing.
While such commonly held beliefs can be prevalent, if we want the new year to materialize into a positive experience, we need to ask ourselves if self-criticism is truly a profitable practice that benefits our annual intentions. If negative recommendations were genuinely healthy, we would offer them to our loved ones regularly.
Think about it…If a loved one came to us in distress, would we offer to help them by calling them names, so they stay grounded, emotionally abusing them to prevent arrogance, or “telling them like it is” so they gain extra motivation to push through their challenges? Are these helpful means to assist our loved ones? No, and they aren’t good ways to help ourselves either.
Instead, when we feel the “winter blues,” we should challenge our negative self-evaluations. To do this, consider that many negative thoughts are actually opinions. Opinions can always be questioned. To do this effectively, we should write out our thoughts rather than attempting to challenge them in our minds where external interference can easily distract us. By documenting our thoughts on paper, this enables us to give clear, accurate evaluations and counter opinions with facts that are useful to us.
To begin, first consider the situation you are in that may be causing negative thoughts. This will help you discover possible patterns that result in harmful thinking. Next, determine your present mindset by determining what you are saying to yourself with questions like: What am I saying to myself inside my head? What is my self-evaluation based on these thoughts? How are my thoughts affecting my behavior? Write your answers down for future reference.
Once you have your answers recorded, determine how strongly you believe them. Perhaps you rate it on a scale or simply write out a sentence for each question. The goal is to determine what thoughts yield negative behaviors within a determined context. In this case, the context might be the winter months.
After completing this exercise, you are ready to challenge your negative self-evaluation(s). To do this, follow this outline:
- Determine what evidence you have for your opinion.
- Also determine what evidence you have against your opinion.
- Write the evidence for and against down in a T-chart format so you can simultaneously visualize your supporting ideas.
- Based on your data, decide if your ideas are opinions or facts.
- List positive ways you could alternatively view your situation.
- Then, identify what advice you’d give to a loved one in a similar mindset.
- Lastly, through self-talk, give yourself the positive advice you’d give a loved one and begin renewing your mind with a more accurate assessment of yourself.
By following these simple steps, you will begin to replace negative self-thoughts with more accurate and balanced beliefs about yourself. Any time you catch yourself stumbling back into negative self-evaluations, keep repeating the fact-based conclusions you determined on paper.
You can even re-read your data because you documented it. In doing so, you will stifle negative thoughts and replace them with empowering facts. Over time, you will observe your mind begin to change, which will then be followed by a reassuring behavior change.
Approaching the winter blues with a positive mindset will help you enjoy the time rather than stress over it. You will also liberate yourself to share some of your newfound optimism with others who may also be feeling down.
Lastly, you will have taken steps to increase your own vitality, which can help catapult you into a better, more productive new year! Don’t settle for negative self-evaluations. Counter them and help both yourself and others feel happy, be more productive, and set the stage for the exciting goals you are about to achieve.
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