Importance of Eliminating Negative Thinking By John Kehoe

Importance of Eliminating Negative Thinking

By John Kehoe

Eliminating negative thinking is not simply about having a good attitude or feeling good or being positive just for the sake of being positive, although all these things have their benefits. It goes much deeper than that. The student of Mind Powers recognizes that thoughts are real forces and that how we think directly affects the things that happen to us.  Our mind is like a garden, and we are the master gardeners. Through care and diligence we can create a botanical masterpiece, or through neglect our garden can be a mass of weeds--negatives, insecurities and failures. Understanding this, it becomes our duty and responsibility to eliminate negative thinking.
I'm going to give you five excellent techniques for eliminating negatives from your mind.
Each technique is separate and independent from the other. In fact some of these techniques will seem contradictory, but each will be highly effective in dealing with negative thinking.

The first technique is called cut it off.

With this technique, the instant you recognize that you are thinking a negative thought, you end it. You don't argue with it, you don't analyze it, you don't defend yourself against it, you cut it off. The moment you recognize that you're thinking a negative thought, simply cut it off and insert a totally different thought into your mind. And the key here is the instant you recognize you're thinking a negative thought. So whenever you become aware of negative thinking, act immediately, cut it off and set a totally different thought into your mind.

The second technique is called label it.

As soon as you recognize that you are thinking a negative thought, instead of cutting it off as you did with the first technique, label it. You say to yourself, "What is happening inside me now is that I am experiencing 'a negative thought.' " That's all it is, and you keep reminding yourself of that. You keep reminding yourself that "It's only a negative thought. It's only a negative thought."  I'm going to share an astounding truth with you that will help you immensely in ridding yourself of negatives. I'm going to write it in bold letters and I would like you to read it over at least three times before you continue on, so that it becomes imprinted into your mind. Here it is: Negatives only have power over you if you react to them.
Go back and read it again. Continue to read this statement until you fully realize that it's you reacting to negatives that gives them power. The minute you start worrying in this way, the minute you start reacting to the negative, the minute you start working yourself up about it, it's got you. But when you recognize that negatives only have power over you when you react to them, then you simply choose not to react. Label it. Remind yourself that it is only a negative thought. And then move on to something else. Don't get trapped into thinking about it. Dismiss it. Once again, negatives only have power over you if you react to them.

Now the third technique for eliminating negatives is to exaggerate the thought into all ridiculousness.

The exaggeration technique is a great technique, but you must exaggerate it into ridiculousness. And the key word here is ridiculousness. Let's say that you're a salesperson and you're out making your sales calls and suddenly the thought comes to you, "Ah, what's the use, I'm not going to make another sale today." And then you catch yourself and you say, "Wait a second that's a negative thought." With the exaggeration technique, what you might then say is, "That's right, I'm not going to make another sale today. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if, when I visit this next company, as soon as I open the door people are going to be throwing pails of water on me, and then they're going to release pit bull terriers and German shepherds and I'm going to be bitten and I'm going to be wet, and then this great big mechanical boxing glove will come out and it's going to smash me in the face. And then everybody is going to leap up on their desk and reveal this great big banner that says, 'You fool, why did you come here? You're never going to make another sale!' " And you just keep carrying on like this, exaggerating it until your mind goes, "Okay, enough, this is ridiculous." You then find yourself laughing at the thought, and once you're laughing at the thought you have robbed it of all its power.  Wouldn't it be great if when we had negative thoughts they came with warning signs reading, "It's only a negative thought, you don't have to believe it if you don't want to." But negatives don't come like that. They come disguised as apparently real problems, or quietly, slipping in when we're not paying attention. And if we're not aware of the fact that our mind is the great trickster, forever conjuring up negative thoughts, then we'll buy into every single destructive thought that occurs to us. But with these techniques we have ways of dealing with negatives. That's why they are so valuable.

The fourth technique is to counteract the negative with the exact opposite.

Whatever the negative is saying to you, you counteract it by thinking the exact opposite thought. When the negative thought comes to you: "I'm not going to make another sale today," you counteract it with, "I'm going to make several more sales today." When the negative thought comes to you, "I'm never going to get ahead financially," you counteract it with the exact opposite - "I'm going to be tremendously successful financially." When the thought comes to you, "I'm never going to have a meaningful relationship," you counteract it with the exact opposite -"I'm soon going to have a fabulous relationship."  You see, the mind can think only one thought at a time. It might seem to you that you're thinking many thoughts at a time, but what is actually happening is you're thinking one thought after another one thought after another one thought, and so on. At any given moment, you're only thinking one thought. So if you take out the negative and put in the exact opposite, you are taking the power away from that negative. Don't feed the beast.  This is often exactly opposite to what most people do. Most people, when they have something that they don't want to have happen to them, they think about it, they worry about it, they focus on it, eventually they manifest it.

The fifth technique is to use affirmations on the negative.

If you don't know what affirmations are, they are simply statements that you repeat to yourself, over and over and over again. In Mind Power into the 21st Century I have written a whole chapter on affirmations. Affirmations are extremely effective, especially on those reoccurring negatives, the ones that have haunted you for years. What you do is the next time that you find yourself thinking that negative, calmly inform it that, "From here on, every time that you come to me, you will be met with two minutes of affirmations stating the precise opposite of what you are saying." And keep to that promise. So when your mind comes up with a negative such as, "I'm never going to get ahead in my life," as soon as that thought comes to you, counteract it with two minutes of affirmations stating the exact opposite: "I'm going to be tremendously successful in my life. I'm going to be tremendously successful in my life. I'm going to be tremendously successful in my life." And repeat this affirmation to yourself over and over again for the full two minutes. And if the negative comes back, hit it again with another two minutes. If you respond with two minutes of affirmations every single time it comes to you, I will guarantee you that very quickly, often within days, that negative will cease haunting you.  These are five excellent ways of dealing with negative thinking. Use whichever ones you find beneficial, use them in combinations with one another, but most importantly, use them. Because you no longer need to be overpowered by negatives. No longer do you have to let these negatives bring you down. From this point on you possess the tools and techniques to eliminate negatives. Congratulations. Now go out and use them.




Article Taken From: http://www.learnmindpower.com/articles/importance-eliminating-negative-thinking/