A lot of people dwell so much on negative thoughts especially if there is a new opportunity or thing that is going to happen in their lives. People tend to think of ways to distract a positive energy; an d this will cost them the expense of losing a good opportunity or relationship.
There are actually a number of ways to de-condition a negative thought pattern. The basic idea is to replace the old pattern with a new one. Mentally resisting the negative thought will usually backfire, in which you will simply reinforce it and make it even worse.
Here are some ways to de-condition negative thoughts:
Select an empowering replacement thought.
Decide what thought you’d like to have instead of the negative one. So if you have been thinking, “I am not smart” maybe you would like to replace that with “I am brilliant!” Choose a thought that empowers you in a way that disrupts the disempowering effect of the negative thought.
Turn the negative thought into a mental image.
This is a good tactic wherein, you take that little voice, and turn it into a corresponding mental picture. Example is, if your thought is, “I am such an idiot,” then imagine yourself wearing a dunce cap, dressed foolishly, and jumping around like a total dork. See yourself surrounded by other people all pointing at you while you shout, “I am a dork.” The more you exaggerate the scene, the better. Then you can imagine bright colors, lots of animation, and rapid movement while you rehearse this scene over and over in your mind until you reach the point where thinking the negative thought automatically brings up this imagery.
Turn the positive thought into a mental image.
While you turn negative thoughts in a certain mental image to exaggerate and make the idea obnoxious, now go through the same process to create a new mental scene from the positive thought. For example, “I am brilliant,” you might imagine yourself standing tall, posing like Superhero with your hands on your hips. You can also, picture a light bulb appearing just above your head. The bulb turns on so bright, and you see yourself yelling it, “I am a great and I AM bbrrrilliaannt!!!” This scene again needs rehearsing until merely thinking the positive line automatically brings up the associated imagery.
Test.
Now you need to test your mental redirect to see if it works. Merely thinking the negative thought should rapidly bring up the positive thought. If you’ve done this correctly, you won’t be able to help it. The negative thought is the stimulus that causes your mind to run the whole pattern automatically. So, whenever you happen to think that you are an idiot, even without being fully aware of it, you end up thinking that you are brilliant.
If you have never done visualizations like this before, it may take you several try or longer to go through this whole process. As a rule, speed comes with practice. The whole thing can literally be done in seconds once you get used to it. This skill is learnable like others, and do not lose hope for it probably will feel a bit awkward the first time.
Give this process a try the next time you notice yourself dwelling on a negative thought. This may be very empowering; you would be amazed how you find yourself in control of all the situations and not be distracted with negative thoughts on things, situations, especially of yourself.
