How’s everyone doing? We’re midway through the week… It feels like 2019 is flying by already doesn’t it?! I’m currently bundled up on the sofa watching the snow fall out the window and I just wanted to jump in here and chat with you about negative thoughts and about using powerful mantras to help combat them. Don’t get me wrong, negative thoughts are totally normal, something we all deal with at one time or another, just part and parcel of our oh-so-human experience here on Earth. There is no up without down and no wrong without right and unless you lock yourself away on a deserted Island there will inevitably be encounters with outside influences that leave you feeling less than your best.

Sometimes though, instead of those negative thoughts and feelings passing on through after (a healthy amount of) time, making way for happier, more positive thoughts, this negative energy can get stuck, leaving your inner chatter on a constant loop of negativity which can be really, really hard to drag yourself out of.

I know that anyone who has suffered from mental health issues, myself included, will feel this all too acutely.

My experience is that negative thoughts and feelings are often like quicksand, one thought leads to another, then another and before you know it you’re in a mental tailspin, anxiety rising by the second as everything else quickly diminishes – motivation, willpower, joy, energy etc.

It’s no fun.

SO, WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

One tactic that I’ve learnt and used to great effect over the years of living with various mental health issues is to recognise when I’m in a negative thought pattern and stop thoughts dead in their tracks, replacing them with more positive mantras.

I’ll be honest, you might not catch all negative thoughts and you most likely won’t believe your mantras at first. Maybe not even after the 10th or 20th time you’ve used them and that’s ok. Stick with it and trust me – there’s so much power in you interrupting those negative thoughts and repeating something positive to yourself instead.

Every time you manage to stop a negative thought and replace it with something empowering and uplifting, you’re slowly rewiring your brain to think more positively, without you having to prompt it. You’re strengthening your own natural defence system against that ‘rainy brain’ syndrome.

Depending on your unique and wonderful make-up, you might find this exercise easy, you might find it extremely hard. Some people will go their whole life without ever having to consciously do it at all but if you often find yourself spiralling into negative thought patterns and you struggle to drag yourself out of them, I’d highly recommend you giving it a go.

POSITIVE MANTRAS

The next time you find yourself ruminating on any of the following or anything even vaguely hurtful or mean…

I’m not good enough. I’ll never be able to do that. I don’t deserve love. Why did they get that opportunity and not me, what’s wrong with me? I’m ugly. I’m too thin / too fat. I have no skills. I’m not clever enough. That’s not for me. So on and so forth…

Either come up with your own collection of positive mantras and stick them somewhere you can see them, or use one of the following;

• ‘I am enough.’
• ‘I’ve got this.’
• I have all the answers and resources within me, to be the person I want to be.’
• ‘I am on my own unique journey and opportunities will arise when I am ready for them.’
• ‘I have all the energy I need to do the things that I want to do.’
• ‘I am worthy of so much love.’
• ‘My thoughts and ideas have value and my voice deserves to be heard.’
• ‘I have everything I need.’
• ‘I can do hard things, just watch me.’
• I am calm, happy and laser focused.’
• ‘There is abundance all around me’

 

If you really can’t reconcile where you’re at right now with the mantras above, you could try the following…

• Even though right now I feel lost and overwhelmed… I will find a way through to get to where I need to be.
• Even though right now I feel low and sad… I will feel happy again.
• Even though right now I feel afraid… I know that I’m strong and that I can do hard things.

 

You get the idea.

Do you have any mantras or other tools that have helped you combat negative thought patterns? I also wrote this post recently about 5 simple things we can do to wake up happier – let me know what you think?

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