So I suffer from something called Dysthymia. As such I tend to dwell on the negative and basically have a tendency to just let the bad mojo run the course in my head.

But I have found that exercising nearly every day has alleviated this quite a bit. More so than medication to the point that I don't need it anymore. I'm going to give Cognitive Behavioral Therapy another go as it has helped me in the past.

What are some thing you guys do to avoid letting the negative thoughts get the best of you?

Playing computer games! Especially if they're of the good old variety. :) Also funny YouTube videos and pics/vids of cats.

Gee , I wonder what Licurg is going to recommend? XD

I do two things:

1. Every day I lie on the floor and listen to music I enjoy while I imagine I'm flying.
2. I engage my mind with problem solving, which gives me a sense of accomplishment when I solve the problem.

Looking at pictures of donkeys?



For quick and easy relaxation / distraction, I like going to maps.bing.com, finding some cool location, and turning on bird's eye view.

I was wondering what YOU were goin to recommend lol

Listen to classical music, here's a nice sounding piece from Super Mario Galaxy 2:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1fhegjp_Po

I hang out in here.

Sleep.

Get drunk and play video games.

Listen to music.

Read.

Avoid people (since they are pretty much the cause of any negativity I experience).

Not avoiding them. AT ALL.

Absolutely completely sunk.

(But I used to have a cat. Cats work well. Also, living in Greece, when possible. Breathing the greek oxygen, in the greek luminosity, around greek noise, does repair the soul just fine. If no Greece available, try seas in general.)

I kick the living daylights out of my blowup doll

The same works well for me.

Also, and this may sound a bit dorky, but helping someone else really improves my mood.

I used to go for long walks carrying my son when he was a few months old. Most people were considerate or at least careful, but occasionally I'd get some group of fools knowingly shoving past me as I opened a door with my kid tucked in one arm. I'm not the sort to go clouting people, still, this'd sometimes leave me in a foul rage.

One evening I went running, angrily and fast, to settle myself. It had just turned dark, and I ran past a mum and her young son struggling to get a chain back on his bike. Lost in angry thoughts, it wasn't till two minutes later that it occurred to me to run back and offer to help. (Once I realized, I was briefly annoyed at myself.) So I did. When they were on there way again I found my bad mood had completely evaporated.

Playing games. Reading. Watching funny videos and pictures. Taking a stroll.

kitten videos on youtube. watching and playing with my own kitten. listening to music. meditating over the forest i grew up next to

When I notice that I get pulled into a vortex of negativity, I take this as an impulse to become more "mindful". The term "mindfulness" is a recent buzzword, but it describes something that goes back a long time. It basically means to drop into the present moment and to surrender to it completely, in a direct experiental way, without judgements or resistance. In particular if you are plagued by negative *thoughts*, it means to become aware of how you are generating these thoughts without trying to analyze them. This already creates a separation between you and your compulsive thinking-machine (let's call it the ego), as you can directly feel that the two are not the same. This non-identification with your thoughts (ego) in turn has a hugely liberating effect, as you don't have to take your thoughts so personal anymore.