A couple of days ago I wrote about the impact that negative thought patterns can have on our practices, through making us unaware of opportunities, or blocking our ability to move forward. Here are seven ways to manage or shift negative thought patterns that might be getting in your way:

1. Acknowledgement: Acknowledge the Negative Thought pattern has had a function in the past, though it might now have outlived its usefulness.  It’s rarely useful to try to eliminate a thought entirely. You’ll have heard the idea of trying not to think of a pink elephant, and of course, your mind keeps going to a pink elephant. The negative thought probably first arose at a time of stress or crisis in your life. It reappears now when your brain thinks it perceives a similar situation. However similar it might appear, that was then and this is now. To paraphrase a saying used in investment terms, past experience is no indicator of future experience. Thank the thought for trying to keep you safe, and focus on the current situation.
2. Give it a shape, a face or a name: It can be useful to give a persistent negative thought pattern a shape, a face or a name. If this thought were a character, what might she be called? Negative Nora, Critical Ciara or Nervous Nelly perhaps! Doing this helps to reinforce the message that a thought is not a fact. It also conjurs up idea that you can listen to the character, but you don’t have to agree with them!
3. Keep the Goal in Mind: Being clear about the goal, and choosing it regardless of the yes, buts, making a conscious effort to refocus on the goal rather than allowing the distraction. So like dealing with a small child, you can say to Nervous Nelly, I know the idea of doing this is really scary, but let’s focus on what it will be like if we sort it out.
4. Raise awareness: Find a way to raise your awareness of how often you think the negative thought. This alone can increase your chances of changing your thought. One I’ve found effective is to have a rubber band on your wrist that you snap every time you become aware of having the thought. The association of the thought with the small pain gets the message to our brains really quickly. Another example I heard recently was to carry a little card in your wallet or pocket (a business card is perfect), and put a small mark on it each time you have the thought. At the end of each day see how many times you had the thought!
5. Distraction: Counting backwards from a hundred usually distracts us long enough to think something else
6. Does this thought serve me? I like to use the visual image of a river, where what I want is downstream, with the tide. So the question is, when I think this negative thought, am I swimming upstream against the current away from my goal, or downstream towards my goal…an upstream thought usually feels worse, a downstream thought feels better!!
7. If none of that works, and the problem persists: EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique, or Tapping) is a wonderful tool for working with these issues. EFT is a combination of acupressure and psychology that helps to retrain the brain into more positive responses. If you’d like to experience how EFT or any of these ideas could help you to change your thought patterns, please contact me here, for a free 20 minute consultation.