Always seeing the glass half-empty can send you into a perpetual negative spin and eventually leave you depressed. Yes, for self-preservation purposes we are evolutionarily wired to react faster to negative than to positive news. However, it is important to realize that dwelling on negative thoughts keeps you stuck in the past and is self-perpetuating.

How to get out of that vicious cycle? Psychotherapist Lesley Alderman explained in a recent article that it is important to actually acknowledge your negative thoughts in order to move on, rather than suppressing them. The first step to any self-improvement - wanting to change a behavior or pattern - is always to become aware of what you're doing. Many depressed people actually deny that they are depressed; they don't realize that they keep producing unhelpful thoughts and are on a hamster wheel of negativity. That is fooling yourself, burying your head in the sand. Without interior work there can be no improvement.

If you believe that everyone is out to get you, that people don't appreciate you, that you're alone, that there is a lot of negativity in the world, that things are not going well - maybe it's time to take a big long beautiful breath and acknowledge that you are the one who has been producing all these negative thoughts and beliefs. If you are ready for change, if you are ready to think positive thoughts, uplifting thoughts, go see a funny movie and make a conscious shift - housekeeping of the mind needed.