A real antidote for chaos part 2

It's 2025, so everyone knows what a pandemic is.

A pandemic is an outbreak of infectious disease that occurs over a wide geographical area.

I believe we are experiencing a pandemic of negative speech.

People are talking bad about themselves to themselves.

• ‘I’m not smart’
• ‘I’m depressed’
• ‘Nothing good will come from me’
• ‘No one loves me’
• ‘I don’t care about anyone’ (Yes, that’s a negative thing to say about yourself)
• ‘I hate this, I don’t like that’

I recently caught myself doing it 

I had taken a break from work. I was tired. In multiple ways. And I allowed some negative words to come in. 

• ‘Why am I doing this?’
• ‘What a waste of time.’
• ‘It doesn’t even matter.’

It was subtle at first. Just a phrase or 2 popping up every now and then.

That turned to sustained flows. Suddenly, I was finding evidence to support those thoughts. Not intentionally, but it happened.

I became aware of it when I was talking to a friend about returning to work. I realized that every single thing I was saying was negative.

That gave me pause.

Because it wasn’t true. Not entirely.

But I had built a house of lies for myself, moved in, then proceeded to complain about how ugly everything was.

I hope that metaphor landed.

By allowing constant negative thoughts, I had convinced myself of something that wasn’t true.

I had ignored the advice I had given in Part 1 and in the article I wrote about finding joy in work.

So I went back to read my own advice 😅.

And things got better.

Be careful how you talk to yourself.

Final thing.

Have you heard of desire paths?

I learned about them recently, and I think that's how our mind works.

A desire path is an unplanned route or path that is used by pedestrians in preference to a designated alternative (such as a paved pathway).

We’ve all done it (especially in school). Walking on grass instead of pavement because the grass is shorter.

Over time, this desire path becomes evident due to the grass getting worn from being trodden on. The desire path becomes an official walkway: The path well trodden.

If you think the same thought patterns over and over, they become the path well trodden. It becomes reflex to think along those paths.

Think negative thoughts enough, and that is what you will default to all the time.

Pay attention to your internal monologue.

Take negative thoughts captive. Question them. Why am I thinking this? Is it true? Is it helpful?

And then, gently replace them with positive thoughts instead.