How to Replace Negative Thoughts with Empowering Ones: A Guide to Mindful Thinking

Feeling bad all the time is not normal. Society likes to convince you that it is normal to be stressed, anxious, and depressed all the time. I’m here to tell you it is not. If you are, you probably need therapy. And I mean that in the most caring way possible. I’ve been to therapy many times. Some therapists sucked, and some have changed my life. So, try different ones. Therapy has given me tools to use when difficult feelings come up. I will say it is normal for difficult feelings to come up, but it is not normal to immerse yourself in them all the time. Feelings are meant to show up to tell us things. Things we need to change and deal with in our lives. We feel the feelings and we release them. Not hold on to them and let them build up inside of us. That is how physical sickness manifests into our bodies. If you want to live a healthy happy life you must learn how to confront these feelings and release them. A lot of these negative feelings could be from unresolved trauma, that's a whole other topic to discuss, but today I'm focusing on negative thoughts. Sometimes, actually almost all the time, our brains like to repeat thoughts over and over in our heads. It is important to learn tools to use to break these cycles of negative or anxious thoughts. You must keep breaking these cycles until you stop thinking the same negative thoughts, and replace them with more positive thoughts. This doesn’t mean you have to be positive all the time. Remember feel your feelings and then release them. But the idea is to replace your negative thoughts with more empowering ones. First you must become aware of when you are thinking negative thoughts. Pay attention to your thoughts and notice when a negative thought comes up. When a negative thought comes up chose a more positive thought to replace it. When you are choosing new positive thoughts, try to pick believable ones. For example, if you want to change your thought of “I look ugly”, don’t choose “I am the most beautiful person on the planet”. Your brain isn’t going to believe that and is going to be like yeah ok… Try choosing something like “I choose to focus on my strengths and the positive aspects of who I am”. Can’t think of an empowering belief? Ask ChatGPT. That’s where I got the one listed above 😉Another tip is that our brains more most influential right when you wake up in the morning and before going to sleep. You know how in the morning you are kind of in a brain fog, not fully alert? It is because your brain is in a different wave state. In this wave state your subconscious mind is more open and malleable. Try writing down empowering thoughts and read them immediately when you wake up and right before bed. They will imprint in your mind more easily. You might not see a big difference right away but over time these positive thoughts will slowly build up.