4 Ways to Remove Negative Thoughts

4 Ways to Remove Negative Thoughts

Have you ever felt that negative thoughts were eating you alive? Like a rock in your shoe, these small frustrations and negative feelings drag you down and wreck your mood. Before you know it, fifteen minutes or an hour has been wasted in a bad mood and negative outlook.

If you want to stop those negative thoughts before they destroy your day, here are four ways you can remove those negative thoughts.

1. Reframe the thought. When a negative thought pops into your head, try to look at it in a new light. Instead of ruminating on it and letting yourself start feeling upset and icky, reframe it by offering a different perspective. Let’s say you’re in traffic and someone cuts you off. Your first thought is, “What a jerk!” However, when you reframe the thought, you see the person in a new way. Instead of assuming the other driver is disrespectful, you say to yourself, “He didn’t see me,” or “He must really be in a hurry.” A different perspective can take you out of the negative thought and keep you from continuing to roll with it.
2. Speak it out loud. Have you ever been really upset about something, stewing all day, unable to let go of a negative perspective? Likely, as soon as your spouse came home and you began to talk out loud about your problem, you realized how ridiculous your negative thoughts really were. Just saying your negative thought out loud may cause you to instantly adjust your perspective. If you’re being hard on yourself, speaking that thought aloud may help you feel differently. For instance, when a project doesn’t go well, you may think, “I’m such a failure, I’m a loser.” However, when you speak that thought out loud, you realize there’s no truth to that. Instead, you can replace the negative thought with a more accurate perspective: “I made a mistake, but I can learn from it and move on.”
3. Thank the thought. Sometimes thoughts pop up out of nowhere. You know they’re irrational, but they pop in uninvited and unannounced. If you push down those thoughts, or ignore them, they persist. It’s better to acknowledge the thought and let it keep moving along. “Thank you so much for that, thought. I’ll take that advice on board. See you later.”?
4. Write it down and throw it away. This idea may seem silly, but it’s a powerful tool to have in your mental toolbox. If you want to get rid of a thought do it doesn’t continue to bother you, you can write it on a piece of paper, crumple it up, and throw it in the garbage. You physically watch the thought leave your brain, go onto paper, and go into the bin. Another idea is to sit down and take a deep breath. As you do so, picture the words you want to get rid of. Then, when you exhale, imagine the thought, person, or situation actually being exhaled out of your body. If you’re dubious, give it a try! This simple tactic has helped many people let go of negativity.

Negative thoughts are always going to bubble up, whether they are constructed in our mind or triggered by someone in our environment. In fact, some negative thoughts are necessary to warn us of potential danger or help us make a change.? Our goal is not to eliminate negative thoughts completely. Instead, we want to identify them as early as possible and use these strategies to keep them from dragging us down. As we do, we achieve clarity, free up mental space, and gain an enhanced ability to reach for our dreams.

Check out www.goalsetcoach.com today and book a free call with us bit.ly/gscmeet , and let's talk about how we can work together so you can manage your negative thoughts better and become a limitless leader!