We clowns sometimes have negative thoughts. It’s normal and it becomes an automatic part of our awareness. Thoughts like “I’m a bad clown”, “I’m so stupid”, “I’ll never learn to throw pies” or “I always make a mess when I squirt seltzer at another clown”.
Some clowns call these ANTS, which stands for “automatic negative thoughts”.
A way to handle negative thinking, LoveBlossoms points out, is to argue with ourselves about our negative thoughts. LoveBlossoms suggests we write our negative thoughts down on index cards and then, one at a time, challenge those thoughts by asking “What are the facts?”
We could also ask ourselves “Are there facts that show those negative thoughts are not true?”
Micko thinks it might be useful for you to also focus on your good qualities by doing positive self-talk.
It may be challenging at first to face your negative thoughts but over time it will become easier and you will gradually eliminate or weaken them and replace them with positive thoughts.
In fact, it should become more automatic for you to have more positive thoughts about yourself! We can call them APTS!
Micko still does a lot of dumb things but Micko no longer calls himself “stupid”, preferring the APT “I’m a work in progress”.