Nega No More

Anti-Negativity Thinking Tips to get your Mental House in order:

(by Mark Tyrrell, therapist and co-founder of Uncommon Knowledge)

 

save the cheerleader, save the world

1) Stop thinking in extremes

Most of life isn't black or white, completely this or that, all or nothing. Negative thinking tends to view bad stuff in the extreme.

2) Stop over-generalizing the negative

Ask yourself: "If something bad happens, do I over-generalize it? Do I view it as applying to everything and being permanent rather than containing it to one place and time?"

take time to look-smell-instagram the flowers

3) Don't minimize the positive

Negative thinking stops people from seeing the positive when it does happen. It's as if there's a screen filtering out positives and just letting in stuff that confirms the 'negative bias'. Magnifying setbacks and minimizing successes leads to de-motivation and misery.

4) Stop mind-reading

Having to assign a meaning to something before you actually have real evidence makes you more inclined to believe what you imagine without question. Holding off assigning (made up) meaning to an ambiguous situation is a key part of overcoming negative thinking. When you become more positive (or just more comfortably neutral), you'll also be able to consider all possible reasons you can think of, not just the negative ones.

5) Stop taking all the responsibility

If you (or someone else) do something good or well, just accept it. Negative thinkers also tend to do the opposite. They will internalize - that is, blame themselves - for all kinds of negatives that have little or nothing at all to do with them. Look at how much control and influence you really have over things that you tend to think negatively about.

6) Stop forcing your own rules on life

This isn't to say that we shouldn't expect anything from ourselves and others, but rather that the rules need not be unreasonably inflexible.

If you feel disappointed or let down, then you must have been expecting something else. Examine what it was and ask yourself: "Was my expectation too narrow?"

toughen up

7) Stop making stuff up and believing it

Imagination is a wonderful thing, but not if you use it to scare yourself. Sometimes we need to be able to 'suspend the functioning of the imagination' (to quote Ernest Hemingway, no less).

Trees

fresh air over LTE

Project: Desensitize

• red facial flushing. check
• dizziness. check
• nausea. check
• increased body temperature and heart rate. check check
• physical discomfort. check
• and lightheadedness. Check

Yes, it is definitely the Alcohol Flush Reaction also known as the Asian Flush when drinking alcohol. With this, I usually get the attention for the wrong reasons - among them is turning beet red and scary-ugly usually without even finishing a bottle of beer or a simple alcomix. What’s odd is that only a very lucky or unlucky few (depends on how you look at it) have it. 

It is carried only by people of East Asian descent. Roughly one third of the eastern Asian population carries this mutation. “Alcohol flush reaction (also known as Asian flush syndrome, Asian flush, Asian glow, among others) is a condition in which an individual's face or body experiences flushes or blotches as a result of an accumulation of acetaldehyde, a metabolic byproduct of the catabolic metabolism of alcohol,” according to Wikipedia.

Technically it’s not an allergic reaction but a genetic issue. What’s actually happening is: “when you are breaking down ethanol in your body, there is a build-up of acetaldehyde. This reaches very high concentrations in individuals who suffer from Alcohol Flush Reaction and results in the symptoms you are familiar with such as red facial flushing, dizziness, nausea, increased body temperature and heart rate, physical discomfort and lightheadedness.”

Further, for people with Alcohol Flush Reaction, your body is not launching an immune response, but is actually suffering damage from a toxin when you are drinking. The Asian flush, sometimes called the “Asian glow,” refers to a common reaction to alcohol among East Asians. This facial flushing was found to be a result of a deficiency of a liver enzyme called ALDH2. This finding was revealed in a 1981 article in Lancet.

So it’s a gift as well as a curse

Acetaldehyde is a carcinogen in humans. Research has shown that facial flushing when drinking is indicative of ALDH2 deficiency, which can increase the risk of developing esophageal cancer by six to ten times. On the other hand, the flushing discourages people like me from drinking too much. Because, “the best practice to avoid these symptoms is to abstain from drinking.”

 

choose your poison wisely

Makulit lang

But,’ the “Asian flush” can disappear for some people later in their lives, especially if they continuously “practice” drinking,’ a related article also revealed. (http://www.gbhealthwatch.com/Trait-Asian-Flush.php) It is just me but I am hoping to still desensitize and ‘outgrow’ this condition soon so I choose to drink at my own risk.

Indeed

So let me think…