Even the most positive people have negative thoughts. It's part of being human. But when negative thoughts become the norm, it isn't healthy. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to change your negative thoughts into realistic thinking—seeing yourself, your relationships and world events as they really are.

Monitor your self-talk. We all have an ongoing dialogue running in our head, which affects how we view our life. So, to promote realistic thinking, first you need to find out and listen to that inner voice. Being aware of those inner comments starts to help you take control of them. 

Not every negative thought is "bad". For example, "I feel stressed and upset about my job because there are so many new things I am learning, but overtime I'll learn and it'll get easier." has a negative aspect, but it promotes a positive action. Therefore, it's important to make the distinction between helpful thoughts and negative ones.

Challenge your unhelpful thoughts.Continuing with the work example, do you really hate your job or are you just anxious about the new project that you've been assigned?

Now that you're clear which thought is not helpful, you can replace it with one that is. Using the example from above, a more positive thought might be, "Once I get started on the new project I'm sure I'll do fine. It's just the anticipation that I don't like."

Repeat. Realistic thinking doesn't come easy, especially when you are also working on managing anxiety, depression, and other problems.

A. Identify thoughts that aren't helpful.

B. Plant positive thoughts in your mind.

C. Analyse what self-talk is the most beneficial.

D. But because it's constantly running, we often forget it's there.

E. These thoughts can consume your energy or cause physical problems.

F. To be more realistic, you need to question whether your thoughts are factual.

G. You need to continually return to it even when it feels natural to become negative.