No negative thoughts, please!
I have been coaching a professional who seems to be processing a lot of negative thoughts. As a result, this is leading to self-doubt, low self-esteem, and low productivity.
Many of us are unable to stop this train of negative thoughts. It begins with a stray negative thought entering the mind and before we know it, it has attached itself to another negative thought and quickly a chain has been created with a series of negative thoughts. Before we know it, it is running like a movie that does not end.
Our thoughts are everything. They can make or mar our life.
Stop chewing that gum
Churning negative thoughts in the head is like putting a wad of badly tasting chewing gum into the mouth, chewing it and refusing to spit it out.
How does one get rid of such negative thoughts?
I am no spiritual guru but I can tell you from my experience.
Here are 7 tips to stop chewing that gum:
1. Avoid negative people. These are people who belittle your achievements or doubt you. You will also see them spreading negativity. They take away precious energy from you. You will do well to avoid them. I have a habit of distancing myself from such people.
My Quote #15 says it all: ‘Do yourself some good. Avoid negative people. Life will turn out well.’
2. Fill your mind with abundant positive thoughts. These positive thoughts should be available at your beck and call. In your mind, build a great movie of all your great memories and play it in High Definition (HD) mode in your mind.
3. Celebrate yourself. For clients who struggle with identifying their own strengths, I help them build a Victory List – a list of all successes till date, right from their childhood. It indicates to the person that his successes are not by happenstance. Repeated successes come from strengths. By the way, the Victory List also helps you build that HD movie.
4. Immerse yourself in doing something very engaging.
My Quote #102 says, ‘Sometimes a highly engaging distraction is all it takes to take your mind off a nagging problem.’
In my case, during those times, I would pick something very physical like washing my car and doing a damn good job of it. At the end of the exercise, the negative thought would have lost its intensity. As a result, the mind will be clear.
5. Like a dispassionate observer, just watch the negative thoughts come and go. I call this a Mind Game. Don’t give these thoughts your energy. Let them float in and out like dark clouds against a blue sky. Know that whatever you give energy to, grows.
6. Meditate. Meditation helps us in a variety of ways. In my view, a healthy mind needs to be purposefully cultivated. Meditation helps here.
7. Express gratitude.
My Quote #13 says, ‘If you do wish to wear your attitude on your sleeve, let it be an attitude of gratitude. No matter where we are in our lives, there is still so much to express gratitude for.’
Unless we have reached a stage of high spiritual maturity, negative thoughts will be a part of our life. However, the trick is to manage their influence in our lives.
In case you are troubled by your past and these negative thoughts are emanating from your past, read my post here on how a future need not be an extrapolation of your past. A future can be created out of nothing.
Interested in creating a new future for yourself? A future that transcends any negative thoughts and takes you to the realm of new possibilities.
Sign me up as a coach. At the end of the coaching program, I bet you will be able to tell yourself, ‘no negative thoughts, please!’
I am available at [email protected].
