How to Stop Negative Thinking in its Tracks

Do You Worry?  Can You Get Rid of your Worries?

Are You Overwhelmed with Worry?

Is what you think to yourself essential?

Does it matter?  Can what I think to myself influence anyone else, or even myself?  We rarely accomplish anything by dwelling on negative thoughts. Negative thoughts usually serve to make us feel depressed, unloveable, unhappy, or not good enough.

In The Body Code system by Dr. Bradley Nelson, I encountered an energy called a “Despair Anchor.”  This is the name given to the energy of negative thoughts stuck in our subconscious mind and energy field. This may happen due to a severe or traumatic thought, or a repetitive thought that we dwell on, or can’t seem to shake off.

The subconscious mind is like a computer hard drive that keeps a record of our lives and experiences.  My father used to repeat the saying: “The mind is a good servant, but a bad master.” The subconscious does not discriminate and is very literal.  It accepts these negative thoughts as a mission we have created to be fulfilled. The worst part is, the subconscious does not ask permission. How many of us would agree to have a thought such as: “I’ll never be happy” being fulfilled? I know I have met people who verbalized this kind of thought, and indeed, they never seemed to be happy, always declaring the latest disaster and saying “what will happen next”? We can unconsciously create our self-fulfilling prophecy.  The term “self-fulfilling prophecy” was coined in 1948 by Robert Merton to describe “a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true 1”. 

Have you Ever Worried About or Had Fears about Something, Only to Have it Come True?

For example, we may say that we want to lose weight and try diet after diet without success, all the while having the thought that “I can’t lose weight no matter how hard I try.”  The subconscious mind’s mission is to make sure this comes true. Wouldn’t it be nice to have known that this thought was trapped and a factor behind our inability to release our excess weight?  We can see how we attract negative outcomes to ourselves. Did you know we can attract positive outcomes too?

Why do our negative thoughts get stuck in our energy field?  Why don’t all our thoughts get trapped in our energy field?  I believe that when we have emotions or experiences that feed a negative thought, it is much more likely to get stuck in our subconscious.  

What can we do about it?   Is it possible to counterbalance or remove our negative thoughts?  Absolutely. When you work with a Body Code Practitioner, often a Despair Anchor may be identified that is blocking you and will be removed.  I had one lady excitedly exclaim when I saw her again “It’s wonderful, that thought has never come back, and I have been able to move on!”

The field of psychology explains this phenomenon through the concept of cognitive dissonance.  Cognitive dissonance occurs when we have conflicting ideas or beliefs simultaneously, which creates a mental discomfort or psychological stress.2   Saying one thing and doing another can generate this type of inner conflict.  It becomes an individual’s goal to reduce this conflict and drives us to change our behavior OR thoughts to become more in alignment with each other.  

Three Tips to Stop Negative Thinking

Step 1: Identify Develop an awareness of the negative thoughts you are having, especially repetitive thoughts.  Jot them down.

Step 2: Cancel As soon as you become aware you are having a negative thought, tell your brain “Stop right there,” and visualize hitting the Cancel or Delete button of that thought.

Step 3: Replace that negative thought with one of the following:

Positive visualization–Visualize your desired outcome fulfilled, and imagine your joy, happiness, and satisfaction with the result.  I used to use this technique in long-distance flying with multiple stops when lost luggage was a more prevalent and frequent occurrence.  I would picture myself getting off the airplane, bags in hand, and a huge smile on my face. On those journeys, my luggage always arrived at the destination when I did!

Positive thought that is true or has a thread of truth–A clear falsehood or thought that is not possible causes the subconscious to dismiss/reject the thought.  For example, if you want to replace “I’ll never have enough money” with “I am making 50,000 dollars this month” and you usually make less than one-tenth that amount, your subconscious will not be supportive. However, if you were to replace the thought “Nothing’s going to change” with “I am ready for things to change,” or “I am ready for my life to change” your subconscious would then begin supporting you for a change to occur in your life.

Positive question–This is a fantastic technique, and stimulates the subconscious to work for you instead of against you by attracting what you want, and will work to verify the new truth. Let’s use our example above “Nothing’s going to change.” Replace this with “What will it take to change things for the better.”  If you are thinking “I’m afraid I will never have the relationship I want,” try instead “What will it take to attract the relationship I want?”Rather than creating and attracting negative energy and experiences into your life, these techniques create the space of possibility and the opportunity for what you want to flow into your life.

Can I use Affirmations to Overcome a Negative Thought?

Yes and No. If the affirmation you use is in alignment with both your conscious and subconscious mind, it can be extremely effective.

Working with clients I have found that often there is a conflict, either consciously or subconsciously, that will block the affirmation from its purpose.  We have discovered the underlying reasons the affirmation is causing the block and removed them with Body Code. For example, I removed a negative thought from a client “I’m not pretty.”  We attempted input of the affirmation “I am beautiful.” However, this made her feel very uncomfortable until we released terrible memories of negative comments she experienced when she was young.  After this process, the client can feel the difference, and now the affirmation resonates in harmony with their energy.

Conclusion

Please don’t worry or obsess about stopping negative thinking.   Relax. Take a deep breath or two. Think instead about “Identify and Replace.”   Focus your attention on something positive and crowd out the negative thoughts. The more we become aware of our thinking habits, the greater is the opportunity to learn and grow and step foot on a path to changing those habits.  This rarely happens overnight. Each time we can identify, remove and replace a negative thought, we harness the power of our subconscious to work on our behalf to create the life we desire.

Discovery Session

I invite you to book a FREE Discovery Session with me at www.vcita.com/v/yourbonaccord today!  

Wouldn’t you like to get started on clearing out the negative energy in your life?