How can negative thoughts cause aging? How can you stop thinking negatively?
Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel say that a great deal of preventable stress comes from getting yourself stuck in negative thought patterns. If you find yourself slipping into any of the following mental habits or perspectives, you might unintentionally be damaging your telomeres.
Read more about these negative thought patterns below.
Negative Thought Pattern #1: Pessimism
Blackburn and Epel say that pessimism—always expecting the worst possible thing to happen—is an unfortunately common and negative thought pattern. For instance, perhaps you always anticipate failure or disaster as a form of self-protection; you might believe that it’s better to expect the worst than to be caught off-guard. However, this way of thinking leads to chronic stress, and therefore it’s most likely damaging your telomeres more than it’s protecting you.
A closely related thought pattern is cynicism: Cynicism is like pessimism, but it specifically means that you always expect the worst from other people. Cynical people are distrustful, quick to anger, and prone to overreactions. If you tend to be hostile toward others or assume that everyone else is untrustworthy, you’re probably stuck in cynical thought patterns—and putting yourself through a lot of unnecessary stress as a result.
(Shortform note: It should be noted that pessimism and cynicism aren’t bad things in and of themselves. They can help you anticipate and prepare for negative outcomes, such as by building up your savings in case you lose your job or keeping you on guard against scammers. These thought patterns only become problematic when they start to interfere with your well-being, such as by causing you excessive anxiety when there’s really no danger. They can also be harmful if your fears and worries drive you to self-defeating behaviors, such as perfectionism and workaholism; in trying to avoid mistakes at all costs and make sure you have enough money, you’ll do yourself more harm than good.)
Negative Thought Pattern #2: Rumination
Another harmful thought pattern the authors discuss is rumination: circular thinking where you go over the same stressful thoughts again and again, without reaching any solution. This thought pattern is common when, for instance, you find that you can’t stop thinking about some mistake you made or an embarrassing situation you found yourself in.
Unfortunately, trying to suppress those thoughts—burying them with constant distractions or pushing them away through sheer force of will—is equally stressful, and thus equally damaging to your telomeres.
| How to Stop Ruminating Blackburn and Epel say that rumination is harmful for your telomeres, but by its very nature, you can’t just decide to stop ruminating. In Emotional Intelligence, psychologist Daniel Goleman offers some suggestions on how to break out of your cycling thoughts. One effective way to combat rumination is to intentionally schedule pleasant distractions throughout your day. Sad, ruminative thoughts often arise automatically, so actively engaging in enjoyable activities can help break the cycle of these intrusive thoughts. It’s crucial that the distractions you choose are genuinely pleasant for you—research shows depressed individuals tend to select more depressing distractions when given the choice. By filling your schedule with activities you enjoy, you create productive breaks from rumination. Another method is to engineer small, easy successes or triumphs for yourself. Accomplishing minor tasks like completing chores, getting dressed up, or volunteering to help others can provide a mood boost and give you a positive focus. Instead of dwelling on ruminative thoughts, you shift your attention to the sense of achievement from these manageable successes. Even small triumphs can raise your spirits and concentration in a way that combats persistent rumination. |
Negative Thought Pattern #3: Worrying
Finally, Blackburn and Epel say that some people suffer more from the fear of stress than from actual stressful events—in other words, they worry too much.
Therefore, the authors urge you to consider the way you think about stress. If you tend to get anxious at the mere thought of difficulty or discomfort before anything stressful happens, odds are good that you’re worrying away your telomeres.
(Shortform note: Worry like the authors describe here often results from the fear of uncertainty; you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, so you stress yourself out over every possibility. This fear of uncertainty is exactly what therapist Lori Gottlieb describes struggling with in her memoir Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. She finally overcomes her fear—and the midlife crisis it’s caused—by learning to live in the moment, instead of worrying about possible futures that might never happen. In short, Gottlieb comes to accept that her time is limited and she’ll never know when the end of her life might come. Instead of being afraid of this idea, she embraces it as a reason to fully savor every moment she has left.)
