6 Tips on Eliminating Negative Thoughts

Are you inundated with negative beliefs or negative thoughts which cause you to stay in your head and ruminate all the time? Are constantly seeking ways to forget or stop your own negative thoughts that will not stop forming day after day? Are you just existing and feeling pushed down through your life? 

Negative beliefs about yourself seem to surface out of nowhere, causing your inner voice to become judgmental and critical, which in turn changes the content of your thoughts to be negative and finally steals your focus making you ruminating on your negative thoughts. They consumes your day and robs you of your drive and confidence.  This constant looping cycle is not healthy or helpful, but then you knew that already, didn't you? In fact, you know that you negative thoughts hold you back from what you want out of life. 

Trying to fight your negative thoughts off, forget them, ignore them or shut them down is extremely counterproductive. The more you resist a negative thoughts the more, the louder they become in your head. They also gain in energy and power. The more you attempt to stop the concentrating, over focusing or ruminating on them the more you won't be to forget them. Also your anxiety and fear levels will increase because you will feel that you have failed. Muscling your way out of a negative thought is next to impossible. It doesn't work that way. 

You do not have to live that way. There is a way to forget and break the negative thought therefore you will be able to entertain and create more positive thoughts. Here are 6 tips that will help you to begin to forget your negative thoughts.

6 tips on how to forget negative thoughts

1. Identify and List your negative thoughts

Your beliefs supply the content of your thoughts. Thoughts are directly linked to your feelings and behaviors. Thus, your thoughts dictate how you feel, what you expect, which dictates how you behave. All three (thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) influence each other simultaneously, but content of all three are governed by your core beliefs and your mind code. This is the central philosophy of the 30 Day Mind Changing Challenge. 30 Day Mind Changing Challenge is effective in reducing negative thought patterns through altering your mind signature or changing your mind code. Your automatic negative thoughts sometimes develop into patterns of thinking.

It is important to first identify the specific thoughts patterns you have before trying to change anything. Patterns are different from thoughts, in that, thoughts can come and go, but patterns tend to come back frequently. Some examples of negative thoughts that result from core beliefs are: I am so stupid (belief – I am not smart enough), nothing is going right for me (belief – I am not good enough), something bad is going to happen (belief – Everything I do is wrong), or I know I am going to fail (belief –I fail at everything I try).

If you are unsure or have trouble about what some of your beliefs about yourself or negative thought patterns might be, ask your spouse, family members or friends. They can let you know what negative thought patterns that you think are negative or positive, helpful or unhelpful.
These types of thought patterns are called unhelpful thinking habits which are formed from old embedded beliefs about yourself, which you can ruminate on in your mind. 

Types of thought patterns 

There are specific types of thinking errors that are common such as:

Catastrophic thinking is the worst thinking that could happen such as, “Something bad is always going to happen.”

Over-generalizing – “Everything is do goes wrong.”

Mind-reading is thinking you know what others are thinking. For example, “I know everyone doesn't like me.”

Predicting the future is believing you know what will happen such as, “I am going to fail at everything I do.”

2. Recognize where your thoughts came from that caused of your negative thought patterns 

Knowing where your thought patterns come from can help you identify why they keep reappearing. It is possible that situations from the past have resulted in your mind creating unhelpful thinking habits. However, it's also important to understand that you, and you alone and you are in control of the thoughts that pass through your mind.

For each negative thought pattern you have written down, identify a reason for why you might have this thought. For example, there are many reasons you might have a negative thought of, “I’m not good enough,” because you believe it about yourself from your mother used to tell you that I needed to get better grades but I never could. Over time a belief generalizes from “I am not a good enough student “ to “I am not good enough” and will affect every aspect of your life.

Remember to maintain personal responsibility for your thoughts, they are your own. Nobody can make you believe something you do not accept. It’s within your control to shift the original core belief to a positive belief and that will change your thinking.

3. Take responsibility for the way you think

Identify why each thought on your list is negative and the consequences for thinking that way is a natural. For example, if you find that your negative thought of “I’m not good enough” causes you to isolate yourself socially, have no confidence, or harm yourself in some way these are the direct negative consequences of your thinking. Determine the outcome of your negative thinking that have happened in the past when you had practiced your negative thought patterns.

4. Stop using negative language

Avoid using words in your mind such as couldn’t, won't and can't when it comes to how you believe about yourself. Giving permission to entertain negative thoughts will cause them to grow in power and grow within your mind. It will also cause the negative thoughts to increase in how they influence how you react to situations, producing negative results. Consciously make an effort to shift core beliefs with will and can. Accept the fact that you will occasionally fail, but see it as an opportunity to mature, learn and get stronger from your experience so you more clarity for next time.

5. Embrace change 

Not accepting change will prevent you from making a positive change in your mind and will keep you stuck in old patterns of thinking that life is out to get you, when it isn't. Embrace the fact that change is an inevitable part of life.

6. Practice mindfulness to nullify negative thinking

Live in the moment. Certainly stop living in the future, and surely not the past. You could spend all of your time in remorse or deeply regretting situations that you have already experience and are over. Also stop worrying about what may happen, so they miss out on now. Accept that you can't change the past, but that you have a large amount of control over what you do in the present, which will influence your future.

Take Away

If you adhere and practice the above tips then you can regain your personal authority. Know that you do not exist for your mind, you can be the master of your mind. You can guide and master the forming of your own thoughts. Start today and take back command of your mind therefore changing the direction of your mind from negative to positive.   

      Coach Bill                                           

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