I read last night that the average person has about 3 million negative thoughts a month. Three million! I don’t know how that research was done, but even if you allow for a wide margin of error, that’s a lot of negativity! No wonder people are feeling stressed, overwhelmed and inadequate! Imagine the inner torment that comes with all that negative thinking – probably without even noticing that you are the source!
Just for fun, test yourself. As you go through even your first hour of the day at home, see if you recognize anything resembling your thoughts here:
- In front of the bathroom mirror: I look awful. I look old. I’m fat – how did I let that happen? I’m so flabby. What’s the matter with my hair? My skin looks awful. I’m a mess.
- In front of your closet: I have nothing to wear. I need to lose weight so I can fit into this stuff again. Why did I buy that – I don’t even like it. I hate not having money for new clothes. I need to get this organized. These hangers suck. There space is too small. Why is nothing clean?
- Walking into the kitchen: What a mess. There is nothing to eat. I shouldn’t eat this – I’m too fat already. I don’t feel like cooking anything. Why didn’t I clean this up last night? Why didn’t I pick up groceries? This floor is disgusting. I would love to rip this whole thing out but we don’t have the money.
Anything sound familiar? And that’s without even getting to the thoughts about work, the news, finding your keys, time and so on and so on. And that’s before you even get out the door! Empowering, huh?
Maybe your thought patterns are easily identifiable, or maybe they are subtle, but, unless you have already done deep, deep inner healing to change them, the negative thoughts are with you, all the time, whether you acknowledge them or not. And they are soul-sucking.
So how do you stop?
My advice is to begin to notice your thoughts at home, where you have lots of safe places to practise. In my book, HouseHeal: Transform Your Life through the Power of Home I explain in detail a gentle and powerful process of changing your negative thoughts with lots of examples, but basically you start by, just a few times a day, noticing your negative thoughts (like the examples above), and then replacing them with thoughts that feel better…. kinder, gentler thoughts about yourself…a little bit at a time. And then you just keep doing that….every day….for the rest of your life!
