DrDeanCrosby
Christian Counslor
One of the most important psychological truths that a person wishing to achieve a healthy mind must comprehend is that their thoughts govern their future behavior as well as their current moods.We truly are or will become what our thoughts create for us.One of my very favorite slogans is,"You are not what you think you are but what you think - you are." So for instance if you think stressful thoughts you can expect to start feeling anxious.Most importantly, repeated thoughts about anything are treated as instructions to carry out by your subconscious mind.Our subconscious mind does not know that we are thinking about things we do NOT want to occur.To the contrary it assumes that everything we think about repeatedly,we want it to work on and then make happen in our lives.This is why it is so crucial to keep negative thoughts out of our minds. There is a very simple technique you can use to accomplish this.There are three steps that must be followed very CONSISTENTLY.The technique normally takes a couple of weeks of intensive practice before it starts to kick in.Eventually it will start to work almost automatically if you practice it sufficiently. The first step is the hardest.You must monitor ALL of your thoughts and then silently label EVERY one of them either positive or negative.Negative thoughts include ALL depressing,anxiety or self-criticism words that occur to you. The second step is to IMMEDIATELY remove ALL negative thoughts because if allowed to remain,they will act as a poison in your mind.You do this by yelling at yourself,silently if you are with people of course.Always yell the same disciplinary words so that your mind will learn to expect its punishment for wrong thinking.Good disciplinary words are STOP,SHUT UP or NO MORE OF THAT.Experiment until you find words that seem to have a strong effect on you and then stick with those words.In the beginning you may need to use this step hundreds of times a day because junk thoughts have a tendency to frequently keep re-occurring. The third step needs to be implemented as soon as you finish yelling at yourself.Step two will temporarily make your mind go blank.Then quickly fill up the vacuum in your mind with new positive thoughts that will require your concentration to remember.Memorize song lyrics,a Bible passage or lengthy poem you can start repeating to occupy your mind which will help to prevent the junk thoughts from re-entering.You can also start to think about complex plans or a decision you must make that will work in a similar attention-grabbing fashion. This technique can also be used,starting at least 30 min. before you go to bed,to prevent insomnia.The only difference is that you must eliminate ALL thoughts from your mind because in order to sleep both your body and your mind must be relaxed.The only difference between nighttime and daytime use is that at night you must NOT yell at yourself.Just silently and gently keep repeating your disciplinary words every time ANY thought occurs to you. That's it;a very simple technique that does however require a great deal of very CONSISTENT practice to train your mind to behave properly.