In this post, I show you how to change the negative thoughts constantly popping up in your head.
Do you know the saying, “You are what you eat”? It’s so true. But you know what else is true? “You are what you think”.
Our brain is a supercomputer and it works tirelessly to realize the things we think of and repeatedly imagine about ourselves. If you keep having negative thoughts about yourself, for example, “I have a bad memory”, you surely won’t remember the name of your new acquaintances. Or if you tell yourself: “I’m a loser”, your brain will make sure it comes true too.
Your negative inner critic can really undermine your self-esteem and it can lead to low confidence, anxiety, self-sabotage, and even depression. If you want to lose weight or have a fitness goal, it is especially important to change your negative thoughts since they can make it really hard or even impossible to achieve your goals. In fact, when you start to crave unhealthy foods or habits, most of the time it is a sign of your inner critic’s actions.
Related post: 5 reasons you self-sabotage your diet success
We think all day long, constantly. Most of the time we don’t even notice it but our head is full of thoughts. We think about our work, we talk with ourselves in our heads: Did I pack the kids’ lunch box? Where is my phone? Have I closed the door? Do I need to buy something for dinner? Uhh, I’m tired. Why is this bus not coming? And so on, all day long. These are innocent thoughts.
But it is a different story when you start a lifestyle change and you don’t see the results after two days 😉 and the negative whispers start in your head: “This doesn’t work. I’ll just eat pizza. Who cares anyway how I look? I will dye anyway, why should I deny anything from myself. I should just enjoy life and do whatever I want. There are so many diets out there, who should I believe, why would this one work?”
These thoughts obviously lead to giving up the goals and going back to our bad habits that caused the weight gain/illness/bad mood originally. This shows, that we need to stop these negative thoughts in our heads. The simplest way is to replace them with positive thoughts. Ok, sounds easy enough, but how should I do that?
Remember: you are what you think. In the morning tell yourself 5 nice things about yourself (in front of the mirror is the best, say it out loud if possible). In the beginning, it can be very hard and ridiculous but try it anyway for at least a week. Make it a challenge! It’s even better if you can do it for 21 days.
Don’t tell me that there is nothing nice to tell yourself! You are special. There is no other human being on Earth who is the same as you. Everyone can find 5 things they like about themselves. It can be a small thing, like your eyes or hair or smile or helpfulness or generosity or tenacity, you name it.
Chose yourself a few affirmations or mantras that you tell yourself a few times a day:
You can download James Wedmore’s 77 affirmations from here for free. By the way, his podcast is also one of my favorites.
Listen to Robbie Williams’ song: I love my life as a fun way to hear positive affirmations: I love my life, I am powerful, I am beautiful, I am free, I love my life, I am wonderful, I am magical, I am me, I love my life…
Listen to Louise Hay’s 101 positive power thoughts on YouTube.
Download my phone and desktop wallpapers with positive affirmations to see them and remember them constantly so they can help you change your negative thoughts.
If we talked with our friends the way we talk to ourselves, we wouldn’t have any friends. Try looking at yourself from outside, as you were one of your friends or child and motivate, encourage, help, and most importantly love that person (yourself).
If a friend or child of yours wanted to lose weight, you wouldn’t tell her/him that “Look at your huge belly! You will never be able to get rid of it. Why do you even try, eat this cake instead!” Would you? (I hope not :-))
Your negative thoughts are just unwanted guests in your head, don’t make a big deal out of them. You would just make them stronger. Let them come and go. Don’t fight against them, accept them without criticism.
Imagine your unwanted negative thoughts as fluffy clouds flying across the blue sky.
Then send a positive thought after them!
“I can eat unhealthy food whenever I want to, but now I choose not to. I choose to be healthy and fit.” “Everything is available for me, including a healthy, fit body.” “I’m confident and I look confident.” “Failure doesn’t exist. I either win or learn.” “I deserve to be healthy, happy, and successful.” “My mind has unlimited power.”
Because you are what you think about yourself.
Your negative thoughts are often related to the past or the future. You dwell on something that happened in the past or you are worried about the future.
Live in the present, not in your head!
Don’t dwell on the past, you can’t change it anyway. Give your best in the present, pay attention to your present feelings and learn from them. Then you won’t need to worry about the future. Look at yourself again from the outside and try to figure out what initiated the negative thoughts. Develop a tactic on how to avoid these situations next time.
Remember, you start with a clean sheet every day.
If you start or close your day by listing all the things you are grateful for, you fill your head with positive thoughts and you learn to concentrate on the good in every situation. In the morning, when you have a few minutes, for example during traveling to work, think of all the things you are grateful for. For example for the free seat on the bus so you can comfortably think about your blessings 🙂
You can be grateful for general things, such as your family, and your health, that there is a roof above your head and clean water is coming from your tap. For the peace in the country where you live. For your job, for your healthy food. Or for the beautiful sunrise you’ve seen.
Or you can be grateful for specific things, like the kiss from your child, or a lovely smile from someone, for your delicious breakfast, or that you finally fit into your favorite jeans. There are so many things you can be grateful for.
In the evening, instead of surfing the internet or scrolling social media mindlessly, it’s much better to think about your day. But DON’T concentrate on the things that didn’t work out the way you wanted! Think about all the things that you are grateful for.
This way, instead of making yourself anxious, you will close the day with positive thoughts and you will be able to sleep much better.
Meditation is so beneficial for us. If your brain can’t calm down in the evening – and at 3 am you tend to be still awake and think about what you or someone said 5 years ago, or pondering over how your child will manage in school when he’s just a baby – listen to some guided meditations. You can find so many on YouTube and there are good meditation apps too, for example, Calm and Headspace. Meditating will quiet your mind.
For example:
Louise Hay -Evening Meditation
Louise Hay Evening Meditation, Release Negativity, Boost Energy and Consciousness
If you don’t have time to meditate for an hour, try Zen12 meditation. You get all the benefits of an hour-long meditation in just 12 minutes. It’s genius! Everyone has 12 minutes.
You can try it for absolutely free here: Free Zen12 Meditation MP3
I’ve created a meditation to help you sit with your negative feelings when you have the urge to overeat. Listen to this meditation often and you’ll learn how to process your feelings. You’ll be presently surprised to find that you won’t need to eat to suppress or numb them anymore.
After a while, you won’t need to listen to this meditation. Feeling your feelings becomes automatic and you will be free from emotional eating triggered by negative feelings. You’ll start eating your feelings much less often.
Do you suffer from insomnia or can’t sleep at night due to stress, negative thoughts, pain, or depression? Or maybe you’ve drunk too much coffee because you were tired and now just lying in your bed wide awake?
I highly recommend trying the Sleep Salon audios. These audios help your brain waves dip down from wide awake Beta to deep sleep Delta waves. This is a scientifically proven method to synchronize your brain waves to the frequency that you’re listening to. It’s perfectly safe to use and very effective.
The program contains 3 bonuses as well: a complete guide explaining the science of brain waves and two NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) hypnosis sessions: Overcome Insomnia and Wake Up with Energy. One will help you enjoy the best sleep ever and the other gives you a day full of energy.
As I explained it before, NLP hypnosis is completely harmless and actually very pleasant to listen to. It is like a conversation with someone but in your head. Hypnosis can’t make you do things you don’t want to do! That’s just Hollywood humbug.
You could also try the Superiour Sleep Hypnosis Bundle from Hypnosis Live. I wrote about this brilliant website earlier. It has an NLP self-hypnosis audio for every problem that can occur in your life.
This Bundle contains 4 self-hypnosis MP3s: Great Night Sleep Every Night, Overcome Insomnia, Complete Relaxation, and Power Nap. Together in a bundle, they are cheaper but of course, you can buy them separately too.
If your negative feelings generated by negative thoughts drive you to overeat to suppress or numb these feelings, check out my How to Stop Eating Your Feelings Workbook to discover what you are REALLY hungry for and finally break free from emotional and stress eating.
You can read a free chapter of the workbook and get 3 free training videos HERE.
This free training will show you the exact steps to stop feeling out of control around food and eliminate emotional eating, stress eating, and binge eating.
I hope I could help you feel more positive and refreshed with this post. If you liked it share it with people who might also need a bit more positivity in their life.
Do you have any tips on how to stop or change the negative thoughts popping up in your head? What are your affirmations, and mantras? Share them so we can all learn from them 🙂
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