Positive Thoughts
Bring Positive Results
Positive thoughts are more important than you realize.
Negative
thinking provokes stress, anxiety, depression and many other related
illnesses. It keeps people stuck in their misery and many times it's
the cause of it. Negative thinkers think negatively
out of habit! It may be a learned behavior from our parents or
simply a habit we have grown towards simply because we've had too
many negative events take place in our lives and not enough positive
to counteract them.
It is very important to realize what you say to
yourself on a daily basis. Your
self talk
matters more than you realize. Many of us are tuned into the thoughts
in our heads and many of us are not. Some of those are positive
thoughts and some of them are negative thoughts. It helps to journal
our thoughts daily. By doing so, we are better able to spot our
negative self-talk and it guides us into finding more positive
thoughts to replace them with.
I have to be honest, this can be very difficult, especially if
you are used to letting your brain chatter and chatter all day long
with no control. Our brains think and think all day long. Even when
we sleep our brains are still working. Our brains have no choice but
to believe whatever we tell it. Therefore, people who are habitual
negative thinkers usually feel the effects physically. The mind and
body are so connected that they respond to each other. In other
words, if you are telling yourself "I am tired, I can't do it , I am
fearful" then you will feel the effects of this thinking in
your body!
Learning how to use positive thoughts and affirmations properly
takes time and patience! I recommended writing in a journal. Then by
reading your journal you will be able to spot your negative thoughts
more easily. Try to find positive thoughts that can be realistic
replacements. Once you find them, write them down and repeat them to
yourself over and over again, especially when you find yourself
repeating those negative thoughts to yourself.
STEP 1: Identify Your Thoughts
Answer these questions below to help you identify negative and
anxiety producing thoughts. Write them down on paper so you can keep
track of them. You cannot move onto the next step without knowing
what your thoughts are and can look at them on paper. This is very
important!
- What do you think about yourself?
- What do you think will happen?
- What do you think about the situation?
- How do you think you will handle the situation?
- What do you see in your mind when you think about
your situation?
STEP 2: Challenge Your Thoughts
Look at the thoughts you wrote down from step 1. Ask yourself
the following questions about those thoughts. Then write down
the answers on a new piece of paper. Don't be lazy! It takes
work to get better!
- What is the evidence for what you fear? Is there
any proof?
- How likely is what you fear actually going to
happen?
- What is the worst possible thing that could
realistically happen? Be honest with yourself!
- What alternatives are there for a worst case
scenario?
- How helpful is the way you are thinking?
STEP 3: Replace Your Thoughts
Look at your original thoughts from step 1. You need to go
over those thoughts and take the time to write replacement
thoughts that are realistic, positive, and hopeful. Sometimes
finding positive thoughts can take a long time and requires your
patience. This skill cannot work effectively without using it
consistently, so do not give up!
STEP 4: Repeat Your Thoughts
Repetition is absolutely necessary! I must
tell you that it takes a lot of time for your body to catch up
with your mind. In other words, it takes a lot of effort and
hard work of speaking positive thoughts before you feel positive
changes in your body . If you work hard and you are faithful
with practice, you will find your body eventually feeling the
effects of your new thoughts which means less and less
bothersome body symptoms.
You cannot simply do the above steps once and be done with
it. It takes practice...lots and lots of practice. So how often
do you have to do these steps? You will have to do them as many
times as it takes to create new habits of thinking. For everyone
the amount may be different, so it's important that you don't
compare yourself to others and their recovery experience.
Repetition is absolutely necessary if you want to find recovery
from anxiety or depression.
The truth is that you get to choose
which thoughts you want to think! Why not choose positive
thoughts? Our bodies have one job when it comes to the mind/body
connection and that is to respond to
those thoughts. Our bodies cannot tell the difference between
what is real and what is imagined therefore your body will feel
the effects of whatever it is you are telling yourself.
If you struggle with not knowing what to say to yourself,
there is a very helpful book called "What
to Say When you Talk To Yourself "
by Shad Helmstetter , Ph.D."
Additional Helpful Resources for Positive
Thinking
Positive Thinking Principles
has a wealth of information
exploring the power of your thoughts. The site explores all sorts of
aspects of positive thinking, from affirmations and why they do and
don't work, to beliefs and how they impact what you can create in
your life.
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