If there is one reason why you should work to overcome negative thinking, it is this:

Negative thoughts can ruin your day regardless of where you are or what you are doing. Somehow, negative thoughts have a mind of their own and don’t seem to care what else might be going on.

You could be at Disneyland having the time of your life. Suddenly, negative thoughts arise: Hey, you’re wasting your day. You should be working.

You could be in a holy sanctuary engaged in worship. Suddenly, that voice crops up out of nowhere: You’re such a hypocrite. You don’t really believe this stuff.

You could be having engaging conversation with friends or family. Then: You’re not worthy. These people don’t even like you.

How do you overcome negative thoughts and move on with your day?

Here are 5 suggestions:

1. Listen to the negative voice as if it were a good friend.

This might seem tough to do at first, but you may be surprised at the results. Besides, resisting negative thoughts rarely works. You can try to ignore them, but they persist. You can try to refute them, but they come back stronger.

Just listen. Hold the attitude that you are getting messages from a part of yourself that you have never really understood or even respected. Maybe the message is important to you in some way that you have never considered. So, when you get the message: Hey, you should be working – just listen patiently and with an open mind.

2. Tell me more….

Better yet, when you hear your critical voice complaining, ask it for more information. Here’s how:

1. Listen to what it says.
2. Respond with  “I understand. Tell me more.”
3. Repeat this process until your critical voice calms down.

Watching this video will show you in greater detail how to do this sort of thing.

3. Expand your awareness.

Sometimes critical voices are much easier to handle when you’re awareness is expanded. For example, listen to a background noise, such as the hum of a refrigerator, the a/c, the sound of distant traffic or even the ringing in your ears. While you are hearing the critical voice, stay in tune with the background noise. It tends to soften your reaction.

4. Ground yourself.

Along the same lines, you may find some benefit if you physically ground yourself. Do this by feeling the weight of your body against the ground or the furniture you’re sitting on. Feel the smooth or rough texture of a piece of fabric or the weight of any object in your hand.

While you are grounded to the touch or weight of an object, this expanded awareness may also help you handle the impact of your inner criticism.

5. Realize it comes from you.

Finally, you might just sit back and realize that your inner critic is nothing other than….you. Somewhere along the way, you learned to criticize yourself. How did you learn it? If you begin to put the pieces together, you might begin to have compassion for yourself, which will go along way toward healing.

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