Steps to Creating Positive Thought:
1. Be aware of your thoughts and what you tell yourself each day. Keep track of the negative on a piece of paper for several days. Notice how many times you put yourself down through your thoughts.
2. Use a piece of paper folded long ways down the middle. On one side, write down each negative thought. On the right side, write down a positive thought to replace it. Be as specific as possible. You might write down a correction to the thought, as well as a goal. For example, if you wrote down "I can't believe I lost my keys again, I am so stupid" as a negative thought, your positive side might include such phrases as "I am fine just the way I am" and "I lost my keys today, I am going to start hanging my keys on the hook each day so I know where they are." Your list should now include the most common negative thoughts you tell yourself each day.
3. Use a black pen and cross out each negative thought. As you are crossing them out, tell yourself these thoughts no longer have any control over you.
4. Begin to read the positive side to yourself several times each day. Each time you find yourself sliding back into your negative thoughts, tell yourself "STOP" and repeat your positive statement instead. As you begin to do this continually, you will notice the negative thoughts do not come as quickly as they used to.
5. Keep a tablet with you and write down any new negative thoughts you may have. At the end of the day, go through the same process, exchanging, on paper, negative thoughts for positive ones. Cross out the negative and add your paper to your previous one, so that you can continue to feed yourself positive statements and goals each morning and evening as you read your list.
6. Make sure you complete this entire process each day. The act of writing down your positive thoughts will make them stronger, reading them out loud several times a day will make them stronger still.
7. As you begin to see progress, note how many times each day you are writing down negative thoughts about yourself. If you are completing all the steps above consistently, you should begin to see your negative thoughts decrease. Maybe in the beginning you were constantly writing down negative thoughts and filled up pages quickly. Several weeks later, you might see that you are filling up only a half a page in the same amount of time you were filling up a whole page.
Be Aware of Your Thoughts:
Start watching your thoughts, without identifying with them. Watch them as a detached observer. You may even get carried away by your thoughts. Never mind. It is natural—especially for a beginner. What you need to do, whenever you detect this, is to take yourself out of your thoughts immediately and get back to the process of thought-watching once again as a detached observer. Do not get perturbed by your thoughts. Don't condemn or justify them. Don't try to control them. Just watch them. After some time, you will come to know what your negative thoughts are about. Now concentrate on all the positive thoughts that you can replace these thoughts with, in order to switch over to a more positive attitude towards them. Our attempt should be to cut down the quantity of unnecessary thoughts and to improve the quality of the necessary ones. Keep yourself busy. Simple food, deep breathing and relaxation exercises also help manage your thoughts easily. Expect less from others.
Identify Negative Thoughts:
Keep a logbook. Jots down your thoughts. Write down happenings of the day. Were they positive, appropriate and adequate or were they confused, superfluous and negative? Could you notice the interval between the happening and your response? If yes, could your foresee your negative thoughts? If not, what can, you do to notice this interval? Was there any discrepancy between words and thoughts? If yes, was it justified—could you find a better way of harmonizing your words and thoughts? Was the verbal response necessary, appropriate and adequate?
Sometimes we talk to others, or simply to ourselves, or think about something just like that. Ask yourself what provoked you to take the initiative to start a conversation. Was it essential? What was the purpose? Did it serve the purpose? If no, then why not? Did it use any unnecessary and emotionally charged negative words? Were the words used in thinking, inner dialogue or in talking to the other person, precise, appropriate, adequate and positive? Did you feel happy or satisfied after the interaction with the other person or with your inner self? Can you find ways of improving your performance as a thinker or a speaker? Keep in mind that logbooks are meant to get you started and make you aware of your negative thoughts. It is far more important, however, to be aware of these thoughts when they are just taking birth, rather than leave them for later analysis. Be conscious of the interval that separates the event from thoughts with which you respond to the event.
