Human thoughts shape the disposition and mood of individuals. When one demonstrates negative thinking, it simply means filling the thoughts with negativities that affect an individual’s frame of mind and reduce energy level. Your train of thoughts and personal beliefs create a sense of impact to your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. This is because your thoughts, feelings, and actions are interconnected and one affects the other. So, if you keep on thinking negative, it may trigger negative emotions, particularly anxiety and depression.

Not everyone is aware that having a negative mental attitude can make a negative difference on their feelings, their values and behavior, and the current situation that they are facing. Some people would say that this is but a natural thinking process, that sometimes thoughts are positive and at times negative, but there are those who failed to see that negative thinking has become a pattern and a mental habit for them. Unconsciously, this mental habit is slowly creating adverse effects on the various aspects of their well-being and health.

Effect on Physical and Physiological Well-Being

Since thoughts processed in the mind involve the function of the human brain, negative thoughts can weaken the function of the central nervous system as well as the brain. This is because these negative thoughts block the impulses transferred from the central nervous system to the brain, making it difficult for the brain to properly interpret these impulses. In effect, a poorly functioning brain also weakens the rest of the body system, causing problems on the physical aspect.

Memory is greatly affected by this deficiency of the brain. You will find it hard to clearly comprehend and understand the things around you. There are even instances of forgetfulness. You may also experience a decrease in your IQ. This is how negativity can affect your mental well-being.

Having an impact on the physical health, negative thinking can cause irritation, sleep disturbances, physical fatigue, physical complaints, and a poor immune system leading to diseases such as colds and flu.

Effect on Emotional Well-Being

One of the major culprits of cases of anxiety and depression is negative thinking. Since the brain is unable to correctly interpret the impulses and thus may poorly send the wrong message to the central nervous system, you may possibly experience instances of emotional upsets and mood swings. The main reason for this is that the brain becomes disturbed and cannot feed the right kind of emotion to convey when cognitive distortions occur. Instead, emotions are not properly channeled, thus making a person worried, troubled, or bothered over the presence of distressing thoughts in the mind. The worst case scenario is that some people experience serious illnesses of heart complications due to suppression of negative emotions.

Stress is also another effect of negative thinking on emotional health. But stress is already a complicated health problem affecting the many aspects of a person’s well-being. Too many negative thoughts can lead to unwanted mental stress, pressuring the mind to deal with heavy thoughts. A disturbed mind can also agitate the emotions causing emotional stress. It is for this reason that stress is an underlying symptom of many dreaded and serious illnesses.

Other Effects of Negative Thinking

Apart from the adverse impact of negative thinking on physical, mental, and emotional health, it also creates undesirable changes on an individual’s personality and character. For one, you tend to complain more and become easily annoyed even over little things. When you complain a lot, people around you would slowly distance themselves and avoid dealing with you.

Poor level of self-confidence and lack of assertiveness are obviously the results of a negative thinking habit. You tend to develop more of a self-defeating attitude than a winning personality. You just creep into your shell because you feel that you are not any worth at all to anyone or to any situation.

Negative self-talk and a negative outlook in life are two other effects of negative thinking. You feel futile not only to yourself but also to others. You are affirming to yourself that you are a pessimist who has slim chances of changing for the better. The worst part is, you adversely affect others with your negative way of thinking.