Dealing with Negative Thoughts--the Bogeymen of Personal Growth
Every good self-development program teaches the importance of maintaining a positive perspective. But when you first begin to practice focusing on the good that you desire, chances are you’ll run smack into a stream of murky thoughts and images rising from some bedeviled corner of your mind. They take the shape of doubts, fears, pictures of future failures, and memories of failures from the past. And like the bogeymen small children see lurking in nighttime shadows, the negative images produce a lot of unfounded fears.
“Am I canceling out all the positive images I’m trying to create?” students will ask. Or they’ll say that they just can’t maintain their positive thoughts and ask if they’re hopeless cases. The happy answer to both questions is a big, resounding ‘No!’ For many reasons, positive images of the good you desire have enormously more power than your doubts and fears. And the fact that everybody faces the same challenge means the backlash of negative thoughts is normal.
More than that, the backlash is a kind of gift, to be welcomed. What you’re actually seeing are patterns of thought and layers of belief that were formerly invisible to you. Instead of fearing or fighting them, realize they’re simply showing you aspects of yourself that you have now chosen to change. They’re a kind of snapshot of the images that ruled you without your awareness up until now. They aren’t you; they’re only habits of thought that you can discard now that you see them as the unserving patterns that they are.
To lessen their appearance requires only two things. First, rather than judging yourself for producing them, just acknowledge their content as thoughts you no longer wish to entertain. Look at them with curiosity and detachment, as if you’re looking at an old photo of yourself that you never saw before. If you feel guilty about the content for any reason, forgive yourself with all the love and compassion you can summon. You didn’t choose the negative viewpoint; you acquired it. Because you’re aware of it now, you’re free of its power to unconsciously direct your choices.
Secondly, rather than attempting to analyze the negative thought, belief or image and trying to ferret out its cause, simply refocus on the thoughts you prefer in its place. The more frequently you do this, the faster your preferred thoughts and images will become your new ‘normal’—and your new reality.
The process of change is like the process of dying cloth a different color. When you first dip it in the dye bath, the cloth takes on a pale tint of the new shade. But every time you wash it in the new color, more of the new hue remains. Finally, all its fibers are fully and permanently transformed.
Don’t be concerned that the colors of your old thoughts bleed through for awhile. Just keep dipping into your new hues. Before you know it, you and your world will be beautifully transformed.
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Susan K. Minarik is the author of “Winning the Tomorrow Game: How to Discover and Create the Life of Your Dreams.”
Source: http://www.easyarticles.com
Changing Negative to Positive Thoughts
Positive thoughts equal positive results. It's been proven time and again throughout the ages by some of the most successful people we have come to know. From as far back as time records people have used positive thinking to change the course of their lives, to change the circumstances of their position and improve themselves in any and all areas.
The act of changing the way you think sounds so simple, so easy to implement that once you get into the habit and realize what power positive thinking holds, you'll wonder why you hadn't taken on the practice earlier in your life. Perhaps the most common reason people do not take on the task of thinking in a positive way is that it takes an action on their part, and sometimes the action needs to be a massive action.
If a person goes through the entirety of their life in a negative state of mind, it becomes ingrained into their soul and becomes who they are. Thus, taking the action to revert that thinking into positive thinking becomes an action that at times can seem futile. A person this deep in negative thinking actually turns the prospect of positive thought into a negative, it becomes a burden to them and they stay in the rut.
One of the easiest ways to combat the negative thoughts that sometimes attempt encroachments in your mind is to recognize that it's a thought that you don't want there and immediately replace it with a positive thought of the same nature. Do this whether that negative thought is a real thing currently in your life, whether it's something that could happen or if it's something that has happened.
If that negative beast is something that is currently going on in your life, the positive thought you replace it with should be a thought of how you'd prefer that specific situation to be. Perhaps a thought comes in your mind about how far behind you are on a specific bill, picture in your mind the bill and the amount it is. Now change it. Instead of showing a large balance owed, change the picture in your mind to show a zero balance.
Now picture yourself holding that zeroed out bill in your hand, look at that smile on your face and the feeling of elation in your soul. Keep that visualization in your mind for a while, keep there for as long as you possibly can and revel in the positive feelings it's generating in you right now.
Don't you feel better now? Aren't you more ready to take on whatever task you were in the middle of when that nasty tried coming into your thoughts? It works and after time it will become a mere habit to change all of your thoughts into positive thoughts. You can feel all those great feelings all of the time and with this positive frame of mind you will be able to accomplish anything.
Source: www.easyarticles.com
About the Author: For more information on Positive thinking and happy living visit: A Happy Self
