We have the power to direct our minds to replace the feelings of being upset, depressed, and fearful with the feeling of inner peace. --Gerald G. Jampolsky
Learning to identify negative thoughts is a powerful way to begin changing our negative behavior. We always think before we act, even if the thinking has become automatic.
As we become committed to being aware of negative thoughts, we can stop, take a deep breath, and repeat a positive affirmation. Practicing this process will actually change the way we feel about ourselves. By thinking about positive things, we can change how we feel about a situation and about ourselves, too. Now, life has more promise, more joy.
Today let me have the courage to change the way I think.
And how do we get there? Practice practice practice. It's not like we unplug our "negative program" and plug in a "positive program". Brains have to un-learn and re-learn. Sometimes the best way to kill the weeds is to feed the grass. Perhaps not as dramatic as flogging the weeds, but has much better results in the long term.
When I was learning to play music, I would get really frustrated at not being able to get a certain passage right no matter what I did. My mom, who was a music teacher, would say "don't practice your mistakes". By playing it wrong, over and over - even though I didn't want to - I was reinforcing the wrong notes. I had to simply stop at the first wrong note and backtrack, and un-learn my process of playing the wrong note, before I could proceed to learn the right notes.
Whatever we do most often, we tend to get pretty good at.
Awesome Larry. Several different years, my personal goal for the year was to curb negative thinking and replace it with positive. The difficulty lies in the many different regular situations that we are involved in: work, family, friends, AA, hobbies, neighbors, driving.... It takes work but is very worthwhile.
Thanks for the post. Really bugs me when I get on the negative track at meetings, which is such a source of good in my life. Then I want to kill my brain.
Years ago I was in a very heated argument between two AAer's, one was arguing that you have to "think your way into right acting" and the other was saying that was impossible, that you have to "act your way into right thinking". I had a revelation - I'm so freaking sick, I need both at the same time. As your great quote says, I have to direct my thinking to a better place, but at the same time I can take actions that are different from my thoughts/feelings (like smiling and saying thank you when I want to hit someone). Yes, I'm just that sick, but doing both have worked wonders for my life. And Barisax, I love that analogy of the weeds and the grass. I think I need some re-seed and weed-b-gone all at once, hahaha!
Thank goodness for this board. (and that time I meant it)
