3 Sure-Fire Ways to Kill the ANTs

I recently received an online questionnaire from my healthcare provider assessing my mental health. I breezed through it, marking the statements true or not. But then I came to the statement “I am optimistic about the future.” Unfortunately, I marked that one “Rarely True.”

Automatic negative thoughts or ANTs crawl into my brain. Anxiety overwhelms me. Life will never be back to normal. The pandemic will never end. We always will have to wear masks. Then I feel guilty. Why don’t I trust God is good, loving, and in control?

The average person has 70,000 thoughts per day. How many of those thoughts are negative? What can we do about them?

Negative thoughts

Automatic negative thoughts, or ANTs. We all have them. All the time. Every day. I think of swarms of ants crawling in and out of their anthills, like crawling in and out of my brain. Yuk.

 For example, I can’t do anything right. I feel like a failure. Healthy food will be too expensive. I am overweight because of my genetics.

Here are some categories of ANTs:

1. Overgeneralization. Words like always, never, every time, or everyone make the situation sound worse than it really is.
2. Thinking with our feelings. Just because we feel a certain way doesn’t mean it’s true.
3. Predicting the future. When we predict the worst outcome, anxiety and fear result.
4. Blame. Blaming someone or something for the situation produces a victim mentality and is not conducive to change.
5. Focus on the negative. Turn something positive into something negative instead.

Every thought in the brain releases chemicals. Positive thoughts produce positive chemicals and negative thoughts produce negative chemicals.  Continual negativity causes chronic stress and an imbalance of the autonomic nervous system.

Diseases caused or made worse by chronic stress: anxiety, depression, headaches, heartburn, gut issues, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and many more.

Kill the ANTs

How do we kill the ANTs to improve our health and wellness?

Examine our negative thoughts

Write them down. Ask ourselves “is it true?” Just because we think it doesn’t mean it’s true.

The pandemic will never end. Is this true? No, it will end eventually.

I can’t do anything right. Is this true? No, I have done lots of good things in my life.

I feel like a failure. Is this true? No, I am successful at many things.

Recording and examining our ANTs helps us keep track of our progress in overcoming them.

Replace negative thoughts with truth from God’s Word

Choose what we focus on. To begin with, take time to be quiet, pray, and read the Bible daily.  Ask God for His power to resist discouragement, doubt, and fear. Last, replace negative thoughts with God’s Word.

Paul ends the final chapter of Philippians with this verse, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8, NIV).

Another one of my favorite scriptures with some good advice, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NIV)

Develop an attitude of gratitude

Start a gratitude journal and every day write at least three things you are thankful for. 

Or better yet, tell three people a day you appreciate them and why. Share the gratitude! People love to know they are appreciated.

Final thoughts

One final reason to kill the ANTs—researchers discovered optimists had greater odds of living much longer than pessimists, up to age 85 and beyond.

References

1. Amen, Daniel, and Dee Eastman. Focus Study Guide Renewing Your Mind. Zondervan, 2015.
2. The Daniel Plan