Stop Negative Thoughts

Getting Started

Next time you are feeling intense emotions, try keeping track of your thoughts for a few hours. Are they soothing your emotions or causing them to become stuck? If you find that your feelings are becoming unmanageable, it's time to act.

Carry a small notebook or use your phone or tablet to keep track of each negative thought that you have. You might be surprised to see how many of your thoughts are unhelpful. Studies show that the average person thinks a negative thought every two minutes. After writing down a negative or unhelpful thought, immediately write down or say out loud a positive thought.

Come up with a list of positive thoughts that you can tell yourself, or use our list. Keep your list with you so that it is ready when you encounter negative thoughts.

Practice

The more that you practice Letting Go of Negative Thoughts and start replacing those unhelpful thoughts with positive statements, the better you will feel over time. Negative thinking is a habit, and like all habits, it takes time and effort to break. Send off your negative thoughts so they don't get a chance to build up and intensify your emotions.

In the same way, positive thinking is a skill that must be used over and over again before it becomes effective. Often, by learning to take care of yourself and refocusing your thoughts, you can soothe your big feelings so they become more manageable. Give yourself 30 days to work on changing your thoughts and you will start to notice significant differences in the way that you feel.