Negative Energy ( Archived) (79)

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Suppose you have the bad habit of dwelling too much on the same negative thoughts. And suppose there’s no outward physical manifestation associated to them. It’s just negative thinking, like “I’m so depressed” or “I hate my job” or “I can’t do this” or “I hate being fat.” How do you break a bad habit when it’s entirely in your mind?
There are actually quite a number of ways to decondition a negative thought pattern. The basic idea is to replace the old pattern with a new one. Mentally resisting the negative thought will usually backfire — you’ll simply reinforce it and make it even worse. The more you fire those neurons in the same way, the stronger the pattern becomes.
Here’s a little method I use to break negative thought patterns. It’s basically something I conconcted from a combination of the swish pattern from NLP and a memory technique known as chaining. I usually find the swish pattern alone to be weak and ineffective, but this method works very well for me.
Instead of trying to resist the negative thought pattern, you will redirect it. Think of it like mental kung fu. Take the energy of the negative thought and rechannel it into a positive thought. With a little mental conditioning, whenever the negative thought occurs, your mind will automatically flow into the linked positive thought. It’s similar to Pavlov’s dogs learning to salivate when the bell rang.
Here’s how it works:
Let’s assume your negative thought is a subvocalization, meaning that it’s like you hear a voice in your head that says something you want to change, like, “I’m an idiot.” If the negative thought is visual (a mental image) or kinesthetic (a gut feeling), you can use a similar process. In many cases the thought will manifest as a combination of all three (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic).

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Step 5: Test.
Now you need to test your mental redirect to see if it works. It’s a lot like an HTML redirect — when you input the old negative URL, your mind should automatically redirect you to the positive one. Merely thinking the negative thought should rapidly bring up the positive thought. If you’ve done this correctly, you won’t be able to help it. The negative thought is the stimulus that causes your mind to run the whole pattern automatically. So whenever you happen to think, “I’m an idiot,” even without being fully aware of it, you end up thinking, “I’m brilliant.”
If you’ve never done visualizations like this before, it may take you several minutes or longer to go through this whole process. Speed comes with practice. The whole thing can literally be done in seconds once you get used to it. Don’t let the slowness of the first time through discourage you. This is a learnable skill like any other, and it probably will feel a bit awkward the first time.
I recommend you experiment with different types of imagery. You’ll likely find some variations more effective than others. Pay particular attention to association vs. dissociation. When you’re associated in a scene, you’re imagining seeing it through your own eyes (i.e. first-person perspective). When you’re dissociated you’re imagining seeing yourself in the scene (i.e. third-person perspective). I usually get the best results when I dissociate in both scenes. Your results may vary. You may have to do some mental camera work if you switch from dissociated to associated or vice versa, but it can be done with practice.
I did a lot of this type of mental conditioning during the early 90s. Whenever I uncovered a negative thought, I plucked it out and redirected it. Within a few days, I had reprogrammed dozens of negative thought patterns, and pretty soon it became hard for my mind to even produce a negative thought or emotion. Everything kept getting redirected to the positive side. I think that’s partly why I felt so confident about starting my own business right out of college — I used mental conditioning to redirect the thoughts of self-doubt to a more can-do mindset. I also used this a lot while in college, and I’m sure it helped me graduate faster than normal. I still had to deal with plenty of real-world challenges, but at least I wasn’t battling my own self-doubt at the same time.
This type of mental conditioning gave me a lot more conscious control over my internal states. Today it’s so internalized that I just do it automatically without even thinking about it. My subconscious took over at some point, so whenever I have a thought like “I can’t,” it automatically gets twisted into “How can I?” That’s actually supposed to happen – with enough mental conditioning practice, your subconscious will take over. Memory experts similarly report that with practice, techniques like pegging and chaining are taken over by the subconscious, just like riding a bicycle.
Give this process a try the next time you notice yourself dwelling on a negative thought. I think you’ll find it very empowering. And feel free to share it with others who could use a mental pick-me-up.

Well, I've been working alot lately and have been stressed to my absolute max, so I'm basically a wellspring of negativity right now. I'm trying to soak up every ounce of recreation I can get in my off hours, and with a day off very close on the horizon, I guess I'm feeling better now.

This here's the home stretch.

By the by, does drinking and smoking heavily release negativity?

Got any negative energy? Bring it to the forums! It will be gone with these folks around. Just can' stay long!

Some people here do seem to thrive on it...certainly like to stir it up and pass it around...sprinkling their devil dust on every thread...

Absolutely! Go for it!!!

Everyone can get a little down and be negative at times.. but some people just seem to be like that ALL the time..

I don't mind trying to bolster anyone in times of need.. but it gets on my bloody nerves when I have to do it over and over and over.. with no jollies - up time in between. Those 'Energy sappers' are the people I distance myself from. They do my head it.. SUCH a draaaaaaaaaaaaaain.