You know that feeling when you finally collapse into bed ready to melt into the mattress like a human puddle, only for your brain to suddenly crank up like a leaf blower? One second, you’re exhaling in relief; the next, you’re mentally wrestling a greased-up pig named Every Bad Decision I’ve Ever Made, and it’s squealing worst-case scenarios straight into your soul.

It’s a mental mess we all end up in. The experts at Total Brain estimate we have around 70,000 thoughts a day. And it’s no surprise negative thoughts are more dominant and persistent than positive or neutral ones. Imagine someone cuts you off in traffic on the way to work. It lasts only a moment, but it could easily make the whole day a Bad Day. This negativity bias is there to teach and protect us, but it often does the opposite.

When negative thoughts are left unchallenged, they become automatic. If those Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) become Who We Are or How It Is, we get stuck in a loop of depression, irritability, and inactivity. If that loop lasts too long, we resort to unhealthy habits to “kill” our ANTs only for them to come right back.

It doesn’t have to be this way. There’s a better approach for emotional “pest control”:

Understand how thinking works
Get to know your ANTs, and
Find effective ANT repellants

Understand How Thinking Works

In his book, Don’t Believe Everything You Think, Joseph Nguyen reminds us, “A thought and thinking are two different things. Thinking is a verb [and] thoughts are nouns …”

To put it another way, thoughts are neutral. Our thinking “charges” them with positive or negative emotions. From there, we decide how to respond to what’s happening around us. This process (called neuroception) happens in a fraction of a second, tens of thousands of times a day. Our brains are too busy to prevent ANTs altogether. But shifting our mindset can repel these emotional pests and restore our equilibrium.

Get to Know Your ANTs

We don’t have identical experiences, but we tend to process what life throws at us in similar ways. Dr. Daniel Amen, founder of Amen clinics, identified 5 types of Automatic Negative Thoughts.

What’s your knee-jerk reaction when things don’t go as expected? The answer is a clue to the emotions behind your ANTs. Identifying their root causes is a firm step toward greater wellbeing.

An accurate understanding of your feelings makes lasting emotional healing possible. Tipping the scales toward more positive thinking can also improve our physical health. Positive thinking releases chemicals that regulate breathing, relax the muscles, level out blood pressure, and improve cognitive functioning. Discovering which ANTs dominate your thinking and how they impact your life empowers you to turn things around. All you need is a plan of action.

ANT Repellants: A System That Works

Capturing ANTs is about as easy as herding cats, and dwelling on negative thoughts rarely helps us out from under them. Instead of endless analysis, use these five questions to repel ANTs more readily and keep them from taking over.

Practicing this mindset shift makes it more automatic over time, giving you more agency over your thinking and helping you find greater fulfillment. If you’re not used to challenging your thinking, or if life has been especially taxing, it can feel like you’ve got an ANT infestation on your hands. In that case, getting support is key to greater clarity and peace of mind.

Holistic counseling or coaching gives you a safe, welcoming space to identify (and practice repelling) your ANTs. If grounding yourself in more constructive, helpful thinking feels impossible, we’re here to help. Call/text (615) 390-9122 or email sonya@synergyclinic.co to book a free discovery call. Take the first step toward letting go of the thoughts holding you back.