Are your thoughts getting in the way of you living a happy, satisfying life? Would you like to create a mindset that enhances your world and leaves you smiling from ear to ear?
Your thought process affects the level to which you can enjoy life.
If you’re always focused on the negatives, you don’t give yourself the opportunity to fully experience all the blessings in your world because you tend to overlook them. Not to worry, though.
With a little guidance, you can transform the way you think and switch your view from black and white to one with vibrant colors. Just follow these five easy steps:
Step 1: Accept responsibility for your damaging thoughts
Acknowledge that you’re engaging in negative thinking and own it. It’s not only very self-empowering when you do this, but also, you don’t waste time coming up with excuses that aren’t going to help your circumstances.
Step 2: Make a commitment to change your thought process
Just wishing you were a positive thinker isn’t going to make it happen. You have to commit to working on it and making consistent changes or you aren’t going to get the results you want.
Step 3: Increase your level of awareness
The best way to combat negative thinking is to deal with it right when it happens. If you aren’t aware when you’re doing it, there’s no way you’ll ever change your behavior. So, pay attention to what’s going on in your head.
Step 4: Don’t let yourself finish a negative thought
Once you start a negative thought, don’t allow your mind to complete it. Either say “STOP” out loud, or in your mind. This tells your inner negative critic that you’re serious and you’re no longer going to accept that way of thinking.
Step 5: Replace the negative thought with a positive one
Take whatever bad thing you were going to say to yourself and make it positive. For instance, if you caught yourself getting ready to say that you’ll never quit smoking, replace that statement with one that says, although it is difficult and you may have setbacks, you will prevail.
If you follow these steps consistently, over time you’ll replace your negative thoughts with positive ones. While it may seem difficult at first, the more you practice the more you’ll train your mind to respond automatically, without thought.
In addition to these five steps, there are also things you can do to make the process simpler and more effective, like:
• Engage in positive behaviors every day
Count your blessings every morning when you wake up. Read motivational and inspirational quotes and stories every night before you go to bed. Do things that accentuate the positive aspects of your life.
• Surround yourself with positive thinkers
Feed off of their positivity and use it to help fuel your own. Keep your distance from those who live on negativity as they tend to be ‘life parasites.’
• Help someone else
It’s hard to be negative about yourself when you’re not even thinking about your own life because you’re busy doing something for someone else. Whether you’re helping a disabled neighbor rake leaves, donating time at a soup kitchen or giving a friend a ride to the doctor’s office, you’ll walk away feeling so good that there will be no room for negative thinking.
• Meditate
When your mind is in a light state of meditation, you change your brainwaves from Beta to Alpha. This is when your stress, fears, habits and phobias (all the negative emotions) start to melt away leaving you with a sense of comfort, peace and harmony (the positive feelings).
Even if you’re a negative thinker now, you don’t have to keep it that way. Change the way you think and you’ll change your life. Guaranteed.
Source: Operation Meditation;
