Stop 🛑 Negative Thinking with this Simple Strategy

The way you think affects the way you feel, and vice versa. This is why it's critical to have a positive inner dialog. That is, the thoughts you're saying to yourself in your own mind, the ones that no one else will hear, need to generally be positive, optimistic, and come from a place of love. If your thoughts are already positive, keep it up! If not, read on... 

The first step towards having a positive inner dialogue is to recognize the negative thoughts as negative. This might sound easy, but some people have had so many negative thoughts for so long that they don't even notice how negative the thoughts are. 

Once you create awareness around the negative thoughts, work on challenging them by being a friend to yourself! I like this particular method of changing negative inner dialogue because it's, quite simply, so obvious. Ask yourself, what would you tell a friend who has the same negative thought you're having? It's obvious because most people can easily say what they would tell a friend, and what they say is positive, loving, and still TRUE!

Let's practice... what would you tell a friend who said this to you? "I sounded like a fool in that meeting. Everyone must think I'm such an idiot." Really think about what you would tell a friend who said that to you about themselves...

You would probably tell them not to worry, that they did fine, that nothing bad is going to happen, that they are not an idiot! 

Now, the next time you have a negative thought about yourself, talk to yourself just like you would talk to a friend. See how differently you feel!