How to Think Positive and Stop Negative Thinking

How to Think Positive and Stop Negative Thinking

By Greg Mee

First off, it's going to take some practice. If you spend the first 35 years of your life cutting yourself down at every opportunity you're not going to turn that around in a minute or day or a week. But it can be done if you give it more time. Like exercise, if you want to gain and maintain your results you have to keep it up.

Think of it this way: Don't think of the white polar bear.

Ever notice that when you're given an instruction not to do something that doing it is what immediately pops into mind?

Here's an example: We went on a canoe trip once. Low water, with a few stumps and deadfalls to bump into. And bump into them we did, until we realized something. We learned that if we looked where we wanted to go and paddled that way, that we usually missed that stump. If we thought about the stump and tried to paddle away from it then we usually hit it.

See the difference? So how do you not think about the white polar bear? You think about some other thing and focus on that other thing.

One of the tools to help this along is the idea of Positive Affirmations. You are going to reprogram your brain by feeding it positive thoughts and positive affirmations. Over and over again. You're going to stop the negative thinking by thinking about other things. Instead. You're going to fill your thinking with positive affirmations and positive thoughts.

Try this on for size: Every time, and that means every time, the negative thoughts come around you are going to say, "I like myself" out loud, ten times in a row. For many of us this will feel really weird, at first. Every time the negative thoughts come around think about some positive version of the cause of those thoughts and really concentrate on making those thoughts positive. If you slip into the negative, don't stress it, just get back to the positive thoughts. It's like falling off a bike. Just get right back on a work on your riding. eventually it takes a lot to get you to fall off.

If the negative thinking is deeply ingrained you might find it very difficult to make headway, at first. When you first start working with affirmations, focus on thinking about things or situations that instantly fill you with optimism and good feeling. Work of the easier stuff first, in other words.

One more thing: even if you're thinking positive thoughts it's very important to believe in the possibility of those thoughts coming true. For example, if you grow up in a situation where money is always really tight then any affirmations which have to do with earning lots of money will most likely be a waste of time. Pick something you can believe in.

Perhaps, for your initial affirmation practice, pick something that's far away from the core issue. If you've been raised in that tight money situation you may have some deep core beliefs about money that will be hard to uproot. They may even undermine your thinking.

Perhaps relationships might be a good place to start. Or smaller money issues, such as focusing on what want to do in order to get a small raise. If relationships are the tough issue, as they are for many of us, then perhaps affirmations regarding the job or the exercise program or just building a happier you will be a better place to start.

So what's the take away from all of this?

Don't stop and don't quit, ever. Once you start practicing your positive affirmations keep it going. The affirmations will build the positive thinking and you'll start to forget about the negative thinking. And wouldn't that be a nice place to be?

Take control and think yourself to where you want to be.