Related: 99 Affirmations for Success, Motivation and Improving Your Mindset + How to Use Them
How to Overcome Negative Thinking and Learn to be Positive
1. What feelings do you feel the most?
This may seem difficult to track, but you can do it short and sweet. You can track over one hour, two hours, a day, or any other period of time. The way I suggest you track is by opening up a note in the Notes app on your phone, and every time you feel an emotion as a response to something that happened to you, write it down. By the end of the time period you chose, a pattern should emerge. This pattern is showing you what feelings you feel the most, and what feelings you don’t. If you feel a lot of gratitude and joy, that means you have a good mindset! If you feel more longing, anger, and pity for yourself then you should definitely keep reading.
2. What feelings do you want to feel?
This may seem obvious. Everyone wants happiness, joy, peace, but keep in mind that there are so many types of each emotion. Happiness can mean gratitude or be hyper, or calm, and sadness can mean pity or longing. I bet you do not want to feel sad, so I am guessing overall you want to feel happy. But what does that mean for you? Serenity, the feeling you get from a good meditation session, or excitement, from traveling and seeing the world. What type of happiness do you want? Let me know! If you want to learn more about how you can use emotions, I highly suggest this book, teaching you how you can use your emotions to find happiness and abundance.
3. What thoughts are clogging up your brain and dragging you down?
While we just talked about feelings, we cannot overlook thoughts. Thoughts make beliefs, and we talk more about beliefs in the next question. Some thoughts that drag you down are, “I have to wear this to seem presentable in society,” or, “I have to go to college and get a degree to life abundantly,” or even “if I become successful in my career path I will be happy.” All of these are not true, and are dragging you down. If you catch yourself thinking any thoughts along these lines, switch your thoughts to gratitude. Take a look around you at what you can be grateful for. For example, if you are shopping, take a minute to just be grateful that you have money to shop. Or if you are in high school wondering about college, be grateful it is even an option to you. Or if you are moving up in your job, be grateful for how hard you have worked and how far you have come.
4. What beliefs do you want to work towards?
This is similar to question two, but at the same time very different because we are dealing with beliefs. Your beliefs can directly impact your thoughts and feelings. A belief that you will never be successful will leave you always feeling sad and alone. This is why having beliefs such as “I can do anything” or “my body is strong and perfect” will give you feelings of happiness and gratitude. What beliefs do you want to work towards? Your beliefs should be able to cause the feelings that you chose in question two. If you recognize that you have bad beliefs that are giving you bad emotions, maybe choose to work towards a belief that is opposite your your bad existing one.
5. What are the daily thoughts you want to have?
“It’s going to be a good day.” “I can’t wait to be completely healthy today.” “Just because the sun isn’t shining doesn’t mean my heart can’t.” Okay, maybe you are not going to say that last one, but you get the idea right. What daily thoughts do you want to have? Positive thoughts that make you feel warm and cozy inside? Positive thoughts that make you excited and energized? Once again, make sure your daily thoughts connect to your beliefs and your feelings. What happens daily determines your mindset, and positivity daily leads to a consistent daily positive mindset.
6. What are you thinking everyday?
This definitely connects to question five. The thoughts you already have may be a habit, and you can’t break bad habits. You have to change the routine. If you think, “I am not sure i’ll be able to be healthy today,” or “this rain will completely ruin my day” daily, then those thoughts are a bad habit. You can replace them with the examples in question five. The cue for these thoughts, such as waking up while it is raining or feeling extra chubby in the morning are activating those bad thoughts. When this cue happens, think of the thoughts you want to be thinking.
6. How can you use your new feelings, beliefs and thoughts to improve your mindset?
Put them together. Change your beliefs, change your thoughts, and change your feelings. Your mindset is how you choose to interpret reality. Your beliefs on everything around you change how you feel you can react to your environment. Your thoughts are how you respond to your environment, and your feelings are what comes out of those responses. This may not make a lot of sense, and thats totally okay. Answer these questions for yourself, and learn to incorporate these new beliefs thoughts and feelings into your everyday life. You will notice a change.
(As an Amazon associate I receive a small commission for any purchases made through an Amazon link)