6 Keys to Overcoming Negative Thinking

Do you struggle with negative thinking?

If your thoughts are constantly sad or coming from a place of anger, chances are you may have a negative mindset or struggle with negative thinking. About two years ago I was dealing with this same struggle. I had a bad season in my life and I was in a lot of pain emotionally and mentally.

I spent a long while in a deep depression partly because of what I had been thru but mainly because my negative thought patterns were keeping me there. When I finally got so sick and tired of being sad and angry I went on a journey to find healing and what my journey led me to was life changing.

I found that because I continued to think negatively about my life situation, I was keeping myself in the pain and anger that I had been feeling. Instead, I should’ve been looking towards the bright side of things and seeking the lesson in my struggle using the positive thinking exercises I am about to share with you.

Your thoughts create your reality

What I didn’t know at the time was that my thoughts were creating my whole reality. And because they were mainly negative thoughts that is what my continued reality was. Here’s what Project-Meditation.org says about this concept:

Whatever dominates your thoughts and imagination becomes reality because thoughts generate emotions, emotions generate interpretations, interpretations generate experiences, and your experiences are your reality.

And let’s face it, most people don’t realize this because it’s not often that a person takes time to think about thinking right?! I mean THINK about it (pun totally intended). When was the last time you paid attention to your thoughts without judgment or feeding into them? Maybe you never have and that’s ok, I am here to help you start 🙂

How to stop negative thinking

Reciting positive affirmations or mantras

Affirmations are very powerful. There is a reason why I made this the first and most important key to overcoming a negative mindset. Affirmations are sayings or quotes that described how or what you would like to be, do, or feel.

When affirmations are recited on repeat they have the power to shift a negative mind to a positive mind.

The trick is that you have to say the affirmations as if they were already true. Meaning you have to believe wholeheartedly that these positive affirmations can be a reality for you.

When you say affirmations as if they were already true, your subconscious mind will act in accordance with that.

You can literally speak things into existence with positive affirmations. I am a walking example of that! Positive affirmations were a big part of my healing journey and they helped me change my negative thinking for good.

Visualization or manifesting

This is another positive thinking technique that is very powerful. Visualizing what you want and believing that you can have it actually makes it possible to have it. In other words, you CAN have everything you want IF you can learn how to manifest it.

I like to do visualization exercises for about 5 minutes every day. It’s a simple process that just sounds complicated but really it is not. You simply close your eyes and imagine positive things and experiences coming into your life.

But again, you must BELIEVE that you can have them. That is the hard part but only at first. With time and practice, it gets much easier.

Meditation

This is a no brainer but for those who are new to meditation let me explain. Meditation is the process of clearing the mind while focusing on a sound, a mantra, or an action such as breathing, in order to foster wellbeing and achieve peace and calmness in one’s life.

Sounds pretty magical right?! That’s because it is! Not only does meditation help you became aware of your negative thoughts but it also teaches you how to release those negative thoughts without letting them affect your reality.

Meditation also comes with many different health benefits so needless to say when it comes to learning how to overcome negative thoughts, meditation should be at the top of your list.

Meditation can be hard to do but it is not impossible. Check out my article all about Beginner’s Meditation here!

Remove negative self talk

The power of the tongue is real. If you are always speaking negatively about yourself this is a problem. If you say things like “I’ll never be good enough” or ” I could never do that” then this is what your reality will be.

Negative self talk is the ultimate form of self sabotage and it works just the way positive affirmations do. If you can speak things into existence with affirmations you can also do the same with negative self talk.

For a really long time, years and years actually, I would always say “I’m not creative” because I couldn’t draw or paint pretty pictures. Even when my kids brought home a school project I’d tell them to get with their dad cause “I’m not the creative one.”

But turns out I was totally sabotaging myself by saying that because here I am, a blogger and entrepreneur, creating things every day! I was never an artsy creative type but I certainly am the content creative type and every time I spoke those words that I wasn’t creative, I was keeping myself further and further away from my passion!

Don’t be like me! Always watch the words that you speak about yourself because you are speaking right into your reality.

RELATED: 7 Mindset Hacks For Boosting Your Self Confidence

Drop the negative judgments

This can be tough to do because if you pay attention you will see that you are passing judgments all day long on people, places, things, and experiences that you face throughout your day.

Judging is just something that we do like it’s in our DNA or something. And the thing about negative judgment is that it dramatically lowers your positive vibration which can lead to even more negative thinking.

When you are passing judgment, especially in a negative way, it may feel good in the moment but subconsciously it is hurting you. Because judgments of others are often times just judgments of yourself.

The judgment of others happens when we see things in other people that remind us of something we don’t like about ourselves. It also happens when we see something that we lack within ourselves. So really judgment stems from our own inadequacy and is another thing that leads to negative thinking!

Negative judging is really a double edge sword. It is no good! Learn to notice your negative judgments as they happen and make an effort to do it less. Because really who are you to judge? Am I right or Am I right!?!

If you’d like to dive deeper into how to drop your judgy attitude check out Gabby Bernstein’s Judgement Detox.

Heal your inner child

Most adults have experienced some sort of trauma as children and the effects of those traumas can last a lifetime if they are not healed. This is where inner child healing work comes into the picture.

Now I am no expert at this concept and I am only just beginning to take part in healing my own inner child. But this healing process has shown me many things in my journey and I was able to get down to the root of a lot of my struggles.

I will leave you with this video to get you started. I hope it’s helped you as it has helped me.

Final Thoughts on Negative Thinking

When you have a negative mindset your day to day life will reflect that. But you CAN overcome your negative thinking! Will it take work? YES! But changing your negative mindset is possible using the exercises I just shared with you.

You don’t have to do them all but start small with one or two positive thinking exercises, do them daily, and see how it helps you. Your healing journey is waiting for you!