Has this happened to
you?
You’ve decided to make
a change. For example, you’ve decided to quit your job and pursue a new career.
You’re really excited about the change. And, you’re committed to make it
happen. But, as you start to make plans and move forward you begin to feel
anxious. You experience doubt.
Sometimes these
feelings are vague and nebulous. Other times they appear as clear signals: a
churning in your guts, a choking feeling around your throat, or a negative
voice in your head.
Now, I’ve titled this
article “Defeating Negative Thoughts†so you may be wondering why I’m talking
about Feelings. Simple. Because we often notice our feelings first before we
catch on to the thoughts that are creating those feelings.
However, sometimes
those negative thoughts come through pretty loud and clear. We hear that voice
in our head saying things like, “Are you
nuts? That’s not going to work!†“Who do you think you are?†“Don’t do anything
foolish. You’ll embarrass yourself.â€
So, how do you get rid
of these negative thoughts?
#1 Remember You (Probably) Didn’t Create Them
Most negative thoughts
get planted in our brain by other people; often people with perfectly good
intentions. For example, a client was struggling with family messages about her
success. Messages like “You’ll never make
itâ€, “You don’t deserve itâ€. So what to do? One simple strategy is when you
hear that message; simply say to yourself, “That’s
NOT mine!â€
#2 Dispute Your Thoughts
This technique comes to
us courtesy of Cognitive Therapy. The
idea is to replace the negative thought with a positive one. So, for example
when you hear that voice say, “You don’t
deserve this†you can replace it with this positive disputation, “I’ve worked long and hard to get here and I
deserve my success!†You can find
an even easier approach to dealing with negative thoughts over at my friend
Mona Grayson’s site QuestionTheMind.com
How do you defeat
negative thoughts? Please share your strategies here at my blog.
