Changing negative thoughts to positive
For many people, maintaining healthy and stimulating thoughts has become a challenge.
Por Daniel Colombo
@danielcolombopr
Master Coach Internacional
Many people are dominated, most of the time, by so-called "negative" thoughts, which are those that limit their potential, make them sick, cause anxiety, doubts, fears, complaints and do not allow them to enjoy life. Therefore, it is important to know how to change negative thoughts to positive ones.
According to scientific studies, human beings have about 70,000 thoughts a day, and according to the New Scientist magazine, in total each human being can think up to 1080,000,000,000,000 things throughout his life, a figure higher than that of all atoms that are in the universe.
Four basic beliefs to start changing
Thoughts create states of consciousness; and those states of consciousness manifest in reality. So if you are not getting favorable results in life, start to consider changing your thoughts in the bud.
- You are not your thoughts. Thoughts are a way of elaborating and interpreting your reality. What happens is that many human beings tend to think that "they are that" that is in their fantasy, and as a result it is precisely what they are co-creating on the outside.
- Review your beliefs and paradigms. The way you represent the world, the role you play, your deepest dreams and longings, are based on chains of beliefs, which arise from the way you have lived in the first six or seven years of life. Many people uphold this as immovable laws, even though there are things instilled in them that no longer make sense in their current lives. Be aware and change everything that doesn't work for you.
- The brain is your ally. You are not a robot programmed to always act in a certain way. The brain has neuroplasticity and is like a muscle that you can train to play in your favor.
- You tell yourself all the time that you are like this and you cannot change. This is a procedure based on comfort and a certain air of victimization. The deep and root change towards something better requires dedication and permanent dedication. If you take up the challenge, in a few months you will be able to transform the dysfunctional aspects of your life.
5 steps to change from negative to positive thoughts
As in any process, it is necessary to practice and practice until you have mastered the tools proposed here. If they help you, adopt them to modify your recurring thoughts.
- Be your own behavioral detective. If you are haunted by negative thoughts, you know that you will have a tendency to see everything that is related. The brain "matches" the external stimuli with what you generate from the outside. Negative example: I am sad because this is a cruel world (and you will see many sad people around). What to do? Practice natural observation. An example: If you wanted to buy a red car of a certain brand, you may start to see many vehicles like this almost immediately. If you are pregnant, you will begin to register women in the same situation in the foreground. This is how the brain works, positively and negatively. You create it, and what you see reflected is the product of your own creation - of nobody else.
- Write what you think and work with this material. Start recording all your thoughts in two columns, positive and negative. Write each word where it corresponds. At the end of the day, put the opposite, or connect the negatives with an arrow to the column of positive thoughts. What relationship does it have? In this way you will be leading the brain to establish a more proactive synapse in your favor, and, in time, this will be how it will begin to function.
- Look for points of fulfillment and happiness in your daily life. Regardless of the facts of life, human beings are interpretive; We put the emotional power that comes out at every moment. When you are in negative situations, do the conscious exercise of seeking the good. There is always something, even in the most daunting challenges. Flowers grow in the middle of the desert; so the good, noble and positive is also within you (only at that moment you may not be able to see it clearly). Tangibly record these moments of fulfillment and happiness. A good way is to make your list of the things you give for thanks to the beginning and end of the day.
- Translate your recurring negative words into positive language. Simple and powerful exercise to start: eliminate the "but ..." and replace it with "and ..." This formula will allow you to expand your circle of possibilities about things and situations. Words create internal states that you then translate into realities. Do it also with those terms that you use and that restrict your expansion.
- Two questions to find answers to (almost) everything that worries you. For each dilemma that immerses you in a state of negative thought, ask yourself five times in a row "Why?", Like peeling the layers of an onion. Each response takes you to a deeper level. If you want to find the purpose of something, and you can't visualize it quickly, try five times in a row with "What for?" Check to see if you go deeper as you repeat this pattern. By giving it meaning, you resignify your initial negative thoughts, and you can connect better with the positive or, at least, more conducive to go through the state in which you see that there is no way out.