🧠 11 Questions to Put a Negative Mind at Ease
🌞 Welcome to Full Stop. Sharing my brain so you can dive deeper into yours.
🌞 Hi, Full Stop
This past Friday, I had a belated birthday meal at Thai Spice—easily my favorite spot for Khao Soi and Thai curry in San Francisco. My dear friend gifted me a journal for my birthday, one that is exceptionally... Natalie.
Selena, if you’re reading this, you are one of one with your gift-giving prowess.
On the front cover, it says “Nat’s Ideations.” On the spine, “Full Stop.” And on the back? One of my most guiding, favorite quotes: “We are what we repeatedly do…” Of course, Aristotle originally said this, finishing the sentence with, “Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
This journal arrived at the perfect time—during a very meta, in-my-head week. I needed a place to slow down and gather the hundred thoughts swirling around about myself, my purpose, and the biggest questions, doubts, and fears I am currently facing.
A moment to take inventory of how I’m feeling three weeks into turning 23.
So many of our worries and fears are guided by irrationality. We need to examine them—and do so objectively.
Today, I want to share a tool I once learned from a former coach:
❓The Socratic Method.
We have, on average, 6,000 thoughts a day. Some are productive, most are not. Some are positive, but research suggests up to 80% are negative.
Our thoughts influence how we feel and how we show up in the world. That’s why we have a responsibility to challenge the ones that may be harming us.
💡Here are 11 questions to help:
What’s the thought to be questioned?
What is the evidence for this thought? Against it?
Am I basing this thought on facts or feelings?
Is this thought black and white, when reality is more complicated?
Could I be misinterpreting the evidence? Am I making any assumptions?
Might others have different interpretations of the situation? What are they?
Am I looking at all the evidence, or just what supports my thought?
Could my thought be an exaggeration of what’s true?
Am I having this thought out of habit, or do facts support it?
Did someone pass this thought or belief to me? If so, are they a reliable source?
Is my thought a likely scenario, or just the worst-case scenario?
There’s a common thread in all these questions—logic. They challenge our assumptions rather than letting them dictate our experience.
Your mind is worth interrogating.
Think about it: you are in control of your experience, and that starts with the thoughts you think and how you respond to them.
I’ve gaslit myself into conflating feelings with facts—but these questions have pulled me out of it time and time again.
If a thought feels scary, something you’re afraid to face, consider journaling about it or talking it through head-on. The more uncomfortable I feel with a topic—whether it’s career, love, or purpose—the more merit I find in examining it through this objective lens.
Try it and surprise yourself. You might just make today better—shifting the balance toward rational, more positively minded thoughts rather than those nagging negative ones.
Pause. Dissect. React.
Question just one of those negative thoughts—and take control of your experience, your day, and the week ahead.
❤️ Cheers to an interrogative and introspective week ahead.
🌞Loving Full Stop? Consider Donating!
Hi friends, I’m Natalie—a recent Brown University neuroscience grad now living in San Francisco. Through 🌞Full Stop, I share my mind so that you, amazingly insightful reader, can take the risk of exploring yours. Thank you for reading and being part of this journey.