You are what you think about most of the time

If you are what you think about most of the time, what exactly are your thoughts saying about you?
 
Imagine if someone could read your mind, what would they find? Would they find you planning tonights dinner, or thinking about the good things that have happened to you today? Or would they be going round and round and round in circles re-hashing the last bad conversation you had, wondering how you could have made your point better, or worse - re-hashing the conversation making up different scenarios and endings. 

You see "internal chatter" is an effective way of stopping you thinking about all those things that you should be thinking about. Do you know what you should be thinking about? If you spend your life re-living the past, or projecting a future filled with conflict, and ways to get even, then there is not going to be any space left over for positive thoughts. Do you wonder why the good things you said you wanted haven't appeared yet? Well it is because you have focussed so much on the negative, that the positive thoughts have been drowned out by the voices that shout loudest. 

So how do you stop the negative thought processes cold in their tracks so you can get on with living your life in a positive way? Believe me it's one of the main ways we procrastinate.
 
The first suggestion is to recognise what thoughts you are having. Sometimes this is enough to stop the negative blighters (at least temporarily). But don't berate yourself for having them, it is said that we speak somewhere in the region of 20,000 words to ourselves each day - how many of those do you think are positive? That's right - not many.

The second suggestion is to focus on the good things that have happened to you today - have you been filling in your celebration book? Celebrate the little things in life, and if you are struggling to stop the negative chatter, get your book out and read a couple of pages.

And finally for today - avoid the news, and any other mindless chatter that you find yourself surrounded with....the radio, the tv, the lunch room gossip, you'd be amazed at how much more positive you feel if you don't read about death and destruction on a daily basis.
 
Like all bad habits, talking "badly" to yourself takes time to break, so don't be harsh on yourself if you don't get it right all the time. I'm still learning. Go back to the first point, and recognise the simple fact you are having bad thoughts and then move on. Believe me it gets easier with practice.