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7 Ways to Clear Your Mind of Negative Thoughts

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clear your mind of negative thoughts

Negative thoughts are the biggest obstacle in personal growth and self-actualization.

They also create a lot of trouble in our day to day life. Also, unfortunately, for many of us, they might seem completely involuntary.

Here are some ways in which you can stop these negative thoughts from occurring.

1. Write down positive affirmations

Within the next 30 days, you could be a more positive and upbeat person if you wrote down 10 of your desired affirmations on a piece of paper every day. Writing down how your desired life should look like, in a concise and specific manner, gradually rewires your brain and your life starts to change with each passing day.

However, if you don’t find the time and space to do the writing, you can definitely reap the same benefits by listening to audio tapes of positive affirmations. So, create a 30-day schedule and get rid of your nagging negative thoughts forever.

2. Practicing self-acceptance

A lot of negative thinking is caused by resisting and suppressing the truth about how we actually are in real life. A lot of people live their lives wishing and hoping that they looked better and in a way that is more acceptable by society. Obviously, this creates conflict in their minds, and they start to have a negative thought about themselves.

Self-acceptance can change all that. To be perfectly honest, just knowing who you are and not caring what other people think of you is more than enough to get rid of the self-generated negative thoughts.

3. Journaling

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.”


-Oscar Wilde

Recent research shows that journaling every day can help reduce stress, bring clarity of thought, and also help people understand themselves better. Unlike what most people think, journaling is an ancient practice; it dates back to the 10th century, Japan. Back in the day, successful people used to maintain a personal diary to keep track of their thoughts and actions.

It’s important to keep track of when and how the negative thoughts come to your mind. Jotting down the triggers can help you become more aware of yourself and make it easy for you to catch yourself when a negative thought pops up in your head.

4. Mindfulness meditation

clear your mind of negative thoughts

Mindfulness is not just a meditation technique, it is a way of life. Being mindful means to keep your mind so clear that it becomes full of emptiness and space. For instance, instead of letting our minds wander and think about repetitive things, we can exercise our power to observe ourselves and be in the driving seat of our lives.

There is no denying the fact that the root of most of our negative thoughts is stress. Don’t let negative thoughts keep you from getting ahead.

Recent research shows that even a single mindfulness meditation session can help reduce anxiety and stress. For instance, the subjects of a study showed reduced anxiety and stress after one hour of the meditation session. In conclusion, their stress was astoundingly lowered when examined after a week of meditating one hour a day.

5. Read poetry to process negative thoughts

A poem may seem like a collection of awesome sounding words and nothing else. But it can be more than that. For a logical person, everything must make sense, and every activity should yield a certain outcome. By being this way, they are being too hard on themselves.

Poetry teaches us to break away from our conditioned mind and delve into the unknown. Popular American spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra urges people to read poems to become more empathetic, happy and free from negative thinking.

In the war-torn area of Afghanistan called Spin Boldak, American troops started a monthly poetry reading session to relieve stress and accumulated feelings. At first, some of the soldiers were skeptical about it, but as the word spread about this unusual social gathering, more soldiers started participating in it.

6. Get away from toxic people

Have you ever stayed awake at night thinking about how your life would look like if you got a chance to start all over again? Many of us get into relationships without even asking ourselves whether that person is worth our time or not. This happens a lot when we are young. In that period, all we care about is having fun and socializing with as many people as possible.

If you find yourself doing things that are clearly hurtful to you or you feel exhausted at the end of the day, there is a chance that you are in a toxic relationship with someone. So, evaluate the people in your life and stay away from the toxic ones.

7. Take a walk in the nature

clear your mind of negative thoughts

Taking a brisk walk is an old fashioned way of dealing with sudden stress and panic attacks. Moreover, walking doesn’t take up a lot of energy.

But how does walking help clear negative thoughts?

When you decide to go for a quick walk, you are making a decision to change your current mental state. It shifts your attention from your mind to your body, especially, if you take a stroll in a park or any place surrounding nature.

To wrap things up, a quick way to get rid of negative thoughts is to write down all your thoughts on a piece of paper or record it on a sound recorder. As a result of that, you quickly become conscious of your thinking patterns, and you start to look at yourself objectively.

Moreover, negative thoughts are a result of our bad experience in the past and to let them lead our life would be a huge mistake. By making the best out of the tools and techniques mentioned in this article, you can successfully eliminate them and live a fully empowered life.

References-

1. The Health Benefits of Journaling – Psych Central.” Accessed March 23, 2019. https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-health-benefits-of-journaling/.
2. “Even a single mindfulness meditation session can reduce … – EurekAlert!.” Accessed March 23, 2019. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-04/eb2-eas041218.php.
3. “Reading Poetry Can Instantly Boost Your Happiness, Says Deepak ….” Accessed March 23, 2019. https://www.rd.com/health/wellness/deepak-chopra-reading-poetry-happiness/.
4. “Soldiers relieve stress through poetry | Article | The United … – Army.mil.” Accessed March 23, 2019. https://www.army.mil/article/49327/soldiers_relieve_stress_through_poetry.

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