More often than we would wish, we have negative thoughts cross through our minds. Of the tens of thousands of thoughts we have each day, most of them are sheer crap.

how you’re not enough
how you don’t deserve this or that
you’re fat or ugly
you’re never going to measure up

And the worst part about all of this … is that we have most of these thoughts without even knowing they’re there.

They just come and go like clockwork, firing on all cylinders without us even making too much effort. How does this happen? It’s partly how our brain naturally works, partly what we’ve chosen to think about, and party what I’ll call the adversary puts in there.

But the good news is that if you can figure out how to change your thoughts, you can change your life from the inside out.

What Thoughts Really Are

My mentor, Allyson Chavez, taught me through her Prosperity Approach that thoughts are energy that is constantly flowing. Imagine the thoughts in your mind as a stream of water. The stream just exists, you can pour water into it, others can pour water into it. It never runs dry. But you have the inconsequential power to control where that water flows. You can direct it’s path, change it’s course, and move it where you want it to go.

Thoughts are energy that is constantly flowing.

If you knew how to control your thoughts into a more positive direction instantly, would you do so? I’m sure you would.

Over recent months, I’ve learned how to do this in the quickest and most efficient way that becomes easier and easier the more you do it. It takes time, practice, and commitment, but it’s well worth it. Why is it worth it?

How To Change Your Thoughts To Change Your Life

Because your thoughts are things. Thoughts become feelings, feelings become actions, and actions create your world. It’s the first step in taking what inner desires you have and turning them into the outer world you desire. So let’s get down to how you can choose new thoughts.

Here is everything I know makes a difference that I’m suggesting you do:

Write down all of your negative thoughts.
Saying corrective phrases once you’ve recognized a negative thought.
Repetitive affirmations and positive phrases.
Attaching negative thoughts to pain.
Meditate on replacing the negative thoughts.
The “woosh!” technique.
Using repetitive triggers everywhere.
Ask “why?” and take action.
Use the STOP technique.

It’s going to take a number of posts in order to touch on everything in this list. But let’s break it down into digestible pieces so you can build on each of these as you go.

You may not jive with everything on this list, and some will work much better for you than others. By no means do you have to do these in any certain order or grouped in certain configurations. Just try them all, and stick with any and all of the ones that you feel make a difference.

Items You’ll Need For Changing Your Thoughts

A journal or two that you can neatly tote with you everywhere you go. Pick one you’ll love or you’ll find it doesn’t serve you.
An abundance of pens, colored to your liking.
Extra sticky notes everywhere you may end up writing your thoughts down.
Multi-colored sharpies when you’re eager to cross out the negative thoughts you’ve written down.

Writing Everything Down

This is for the blatantly obvious negative thoughts are the forefront of your mind. When they creep up, you know exactly what you’re thinking, and you can literally see or hear the thoughts as they pass through your mind.

Anything negative in anyway, thoughts you don’t want to have, thoughts that drag you down, thoughts that give you an energy or emotional drain, thoughts that you wonder how they even go there because you wouldn’t intentionally think them … write them down.

Write down your negative thoughts: Carry a notebook with you and use a physical pen or pencil, not a phone app. Write them all down so you can see what’s literally going through your brain.
Cross them out: Put a line strait through them and tell yourself that you do not accept these thoughts because you know you’re better than this. Using a black sharpie can be fun to cross them out.
Write down positive thoughts in response to all of the negative ones: After you’ve blacked out the negative, write down a positive replacement. For example, you may have thought that you’ll never have the physical body shape that you want. Replace with with something like, “My fully accept and love my body exactly the way it is.” Do this for every single negative thought.

You can collect the negative thoughts throughout the day, and then all at once line through them and write down positive replacements. Or you could do it as often as they come in one single event. The sooner you replace the negative thought, the better. But don’t go more than a day without finishing with the positive thought.

What You Don’t Want Though

Be sure to NOT intentionally think of negative thoughts. Sometimes when we’re in a downward spiral of negativity, the thoughts just keep on coming and coming if we give them too much attention. We don’t want that, of course. So if you find yourself pausing to listen for a negative thought once you’ve started writing, don’t continue.

Be sure to NOT intentionally think of negative thoughts.

Pull the negative thought out as it comes, then don’t pay it anymore heed as if you’ve completely removed it from your mind. Then lining through and replacing them with positive thoughts is taking the good and filling in the open space of your mind.

Watch for the next post in this series on Corrective Phrases! It’s a lot funner than documenting your negative thoughts, so I’m sure that you’re looking forward to it.