Tips to Break Your Negative Thinking Pattern

Research shows that there are around 6,200 thoughts that run through our minds a day. With so much on our minds, it’s easy for negative thinking to slip in our life. Luckily, with just a little awareness, you have the ability to replace these thought patterns with more positive ones.

While some may be predisposed to negative thought patterns, the world around us affects us as well. In other words, there are different factors that contribute to the way we think. But on the bright side, we don’t have to be held hostage by either one. You may not be able to realize it since our thoughts tend to become a habit, but awareness is key.

Habitual Thinking Patterns

• In my upcoming book, Feel the Life You Live: 7 Commandments to Live and Die By, I speak on different methods of reversing negative thinking patterns. Many times we fail to allow any room for movement. This form of thinking keeps us stuck instead of allowing room to move forward. In this world of must have, it’s important that you exercise your brain to be more flexible. If there is one thing that is constant, it’s change. Whether you’re ready or not, it’s coming.
• Many times we tend to think something negative is coming after we’ve experienced something undesirable. Why hope for something you care to live without?
• Ever heard of someone tell a story while exaggerating what may have been? I gave a presentation in front of the entire class. They must really think I don’t know what I’m talking about. There’s no way I’m getting this job after this interview.
• If you don’t’ retrain your brain, it’ll have you mistaking your negative thinking as your reality. I felt pretty anxious all day. This must mean that I’m about to fail my exam. 
• If you find yourself overthinking things, you might want to change your thought process. Nothing is really as bad as we make it. The answer is always around the corner waiting to be found.

1. Be Mindful at All Times

In order to change your thought patterns, you have to be willing to acknowledge your current thoughts. By being mindful, you not only acknowledge and are aware of these negative thinking patterns, but you have the ability to change them. When you are mindful, you are able to space the gap between you and your thoughts.

That will be the beginning of breaking these thought patterns. Meditation is key. Making that apart of your daily ritual can go a long way.

2. Protect Yourself Against Negative Thinking

You are not your negative thinking patterns. Those thoughts you possess enjoys the idea of you buying into them. Listen to yourself when you speak, when you think. Question those thoughts, don’t fall into the trap of accepting them.

Ask yourself: Is that really me? How are these thoughts true and on what basis do I allow them to stand?

3. Know the Things That Trigger You

Ever tried having a conversation with someone that reacts to what you say before you are done? At times, they jump to defend something that need not be defended all because of a trigger. If only they had let you finish, they’d see that you were on the same page the entire time.

Slow down, acknowledge these triggers. Do not negative thinking a place to live. That way when they appear, you’re more likely to be a passenger, rather than the driver. Step outside of yourself so that you can see and hear yourself. It gives you a better chance to understand you.

Embrace the Process of Reducing Negative Thinking

Remember, you’re perfectly perfect. Therefore, allow yourself the opportunity to grow. It’s a process. Just like a rose takes to display its beauty, so will you. Negative thinking doesn’t serve you if it continues to drive you on the wrong path. Changing these thinking patterns will allow you to take back control over yourself.

Changing negative thought patterns not only increases the quality of your life, it improves your health. How better your life will be if you actually allow things to go right for a change? The power is in you. When you let go, you’ll be surprised to see what you’re able to let in.