How to take charge of your negative thoughts

Your thoughts impact every part of your life; for the good and for the bad. Sometimes you don’t realise the truth of what you really think under circumstances reveal it in you. It's inevitable those thoughts influence the success or failures you experience.

You mind is the seat of power for all that you do, think and feel.

How you think can make or break you.

Thoughts play such a significant part in your life that it's sometimes surprising to realise how little time you spend focused on improving the way you think.  

There are far too many fundamental and subtle 'lessons’ that your brain absorbs around you on a daily basis that are either helping or hindering you.

The mind is the seat of power for all that you do

Your thinking is that critical element that determines your attitude, manners, understanding, awareness, productivity, faith, compassion and self-worth.

By the outcomes in your life you reveal what you really believe.

If you do not take charge of your thoughts from the first part of the day it’s easy to get sidetracked by negative thinking, unbelief and unproductive feelings. You hear the voice within you already setting you up for distraction, procrastination or self-condemnation.

‘I’ll just hit the snooze button one more time’
'My business isn't going to work no matter what I try'
‘I don’t feel like excising now, I’ll go later’
‘Healthy food can be good for lunch, I’ll just eat last nights pizza now’
‘What’s the point in getting up nobody cares about me anyway?’
'Why pray? Does God even hear me?

Your thoughts are off and running and there’s just no stopping them is there? We all have the voice, it just speaks different things to all of us - it knows our weak spots.

With no defence in place, feelings and thoughts will hijack your life. Your failings, flaws, lack and inadequacies will be on the playlist of your mind. 

The information you receive shapes your life

For many years you have been feeding your brain indiscriminately. You watch TV, hang around all sorts of conversations with your family and friends, you listen to music on the radio or you compare yourself to everyone and anyone (and you always come up lacking).

Have you ever done an evaluation of who you’re listening to and what they are saying? Very few of us do, or if you do you don’t make changes that could create the change.

Sometimes it's because you're afraid of letting relationships go; other times it's because it's so familiar you can't make yourself break away. Whatever the reason, it's time to take stock.

The fact is, your brain is always absorbing information, always! It is receiving the subtle, unconscious messages as well as the more directly spoken words. It is picking up references and ideas faster that we can recognise.

One day you wake up thinking and feeling so negatively about yourself, you don’t know where it came from but it’s overwhelming.

It’s a result of years of messaging going into your mind. Years of brain training you didn’t even know you were doing.

Your awareness is key to take charge of your negative thoughts

Be deliberate and cognisant concerning these things.

You might like Reality TV shows but what are the messages you’re getting from it? About money, relationships and attitudes?

You might read romance novels but what thoughts does it leave with you? An unrealistic idea of romance, a slow chipping away at your own values by what is ‘normal’ in those books?

Do you allow the words of others to pierce your heart? What about the way your friends speak to you about your business or other friends? How is that impacting your confidence or the way you think about others?

These are only a few little examples. It’s about realising that everything we receive through our eyes and ears, we store somewhere. Either consciously or unconsciously. Whether you like it or not, space is made for it and it brings influence with it.

You can think and grow into a greater awareness

It's time to continually grow in awareness - deliberately. Really take some time and evaluate:

1. what is coming into my mind through my ears and eyes?
   
   
2. identify the message it’s leaving behind - is it making you feel inadequate? like you have to change to be like them? jealous that they have something you want?
   
   
3. decide if you can live without that influence or if you need more.
   
   
4. deliberately start to include positive, learning things into your day

From Negative Thoughts to Possibility: 5 Shifts That Make The Difference

#1 Read

Books and literature of all kinds. Personal growth, spiritual growth, history, biographies, and my personal favourite - The Bible.

Learn how successful people thought. Study the bible and really 'watch' the people that had faith. What did they do and say. Take notes and wrote down quotes. Think on what you learn.

#2 Listen

To podcasts, preaching, training. Anything on how to improve things or learn new skills. Get interested in international news and events.

Listen in the car, when you're walking, when you're cooking and even at night as you go to sleep. Filled your mind with faith and this world that God created.

#3 Be Selective With Who You Spend Time.

Remove or reduce your time with people that gossip, pick faults in others, talk unbelief and negatively all the time - it’s time to get new relationships.

You are a reflection of the five closest people around you. You become like who you spend time with, it’s natural. Wean off seeing some people and deliberately spent time with others that challenged, uplift and inspired you. 

#4 Spend time alone. 

Quiet reflection, writing, journalling and just taking time out. It stops the noise, gives time to reconsidering the big picture of what’s going on in your life, where you are heading, what’s working, what isn’t working. It helps to get a clear perspective on some new things you could be doing.

#5 Prayer 

It's not about being religious but yielding and connecting with God. The Holy Spirit gets involved when you pray, Jesus hears and intercedes for you and God the Father makes everything start to happen.

It is the must fundamentally powerful element of any human beings life - if they would just take the time and hand over control to Him.

Only you have the ability to take charge of your negative thoughts. They are birthed in you and either given the space to flourish or squash you. Only you can catch them, recognise them and choose how you handle them.

Remember, God has given you a spirit that has a sound mind. And the ability to renew your mind. He will work with you and for you, if you choose to be full of faith and a positive attitude.

As a coach this is something I help guide clients through so they can break out of what they know, out of the familiar and comfortable place that is keeping them stuck.

It can be a process because of the conditioning their thoughts have gone through. The thoughts that lead to their emotions, which is revealed in their actions and behaviours that leads to the results they are getting in their life or work.

If you've tried to change or to get different results and keep circling back around to the same places then it's time to work with a coach who can help you to step forward into growth and help you break the habit of slipping backwards into safety.  If I can be that coach for you then I invite you to apply today for a breakthrough discovery call.

It's time to take charge of any and all negative thoughts anything that keeps you stuck. Your future is calling you to think big!