What is the result of negative thought
Let us consider how it happens by the example of the story of a Road experiment project participant.
The Igor’s story
One day I had an incident. I brought my child to school and went about my business. I bought some water and decided to bring it in the parked car. When I came to my car I saw that the front of my car got blocked by a big car.
The thought came suddenly to my head “What a bull”. There was a picture in my head that a huge and overweight man parked his car like that purposely. I began to feel indignation and anger. Moreover, some pictures began to appear in my head showing what to do to punish this impudent fellow.
But I decided to wait and see what would happen because my son was still in the classroom. After a while a woman with a baby came to that car. She started to put things in her car and to sit her baby down.
The whole picture that was painted in my head instantly disappeared. All indignation and stress vanished.
Tracking the thoughts
The logical question arises: how often are the situations inflated by themselves in my thoughts? Why does the worst scenario, which tries to lead a person to an emotion, begin to spin in the head?
In the end reality often does not even close to the picture that occurs in the head. And how often do such thoughts that eventually turn out to be false come to my head?
A lot of such moments arise not only while driving, but also in everyday life. When there is any situation on the road, then it spins in thoughts beyond recognition. And when everything turns out differently, the whole drawn grim picture in the head knocks down like a house of cards.
And if we consider all road incidents then we can see that even the slightest misunderstanding is enough for conflict.
For example, another driver accidently cut off on the highway or created an accident situation. A whole dramatic spectacle happens at once in the head: he did it on purpose to harm, and he is happy about it. As a result, tension is whipped up in thoughts and they push you to catch up and punish that driver. And if you do not follow your emotions then you can see that the situation is entirely different and nobody wanted to do harm to you purposely.
It turns out that thoughts often distort reality and paint it with negative colours. Often, if you listen to them and become involved in false pictures in your head then it leads to nervous situations and conflicts. And what if such thoughts come to several people at once and “hurt”them among themselves?
There many questions arise that can be answered keeping an eye on yourself in order to analyze them afterwards and see consistent patterns. Diarising helps in that situation. You can write negative thoughts in this diary. Then you can see how it happened, trace a thought that created the emotion and find a trigger for emergence of anger and indignation.
It is so funny to read that diary and to see how thoughts distort the true picture of reality. This helps not to be involved in such situations and stay calm while driving!
And which road incidents have happened to you?Have you noticed how negative thought provoked you to develop the conflict situation? Please send your stories and observations by email of Road Experiment Project [email protected]