'A man is literally what he thinks' (James Allen)
Negative thoughts affect your body negatively weakening you, making you sweat and making you uptight. Positive thoughts affect your body in a positive way, making you more relaxed, centered and alert. Positive thoughts cause the secretion of endorphins in the brain and reduce pain and increase pleasure.
First, you have to become aware of these negative thoughts; next you have to shake the off and stomp them by challenging them. Finally, you have to replace them with more positive and affirming thoughts. Just because you think a thought, or hear it, doesn't mean it's true.
Try not to mind read. This is when you believe you know what another person is thinking even though he or she hasn't told you.
Learn to look for the positive in everything. Work on gratitude and try and see some appreciation in things and really feel it, how small it may be.
Talk to yourself like a winner. 'You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you' (James Allen)
Transforming Your Inner Critic Into Your Inner Coach
Teach it to tell you total truth. A complete message would look like this:
Anger: I am angry that you ran across the road without looking for cars coming.
Fear: I am afraid that you'll get badly hurt if you don't check the road.
Requests: I want you to stop and look both ways before crossing the road.
Love: I love you so much. You are so precious to me. I want to stay safe so you can enjoy life to it's fullest.
Make a list of all the things you say when you judge yourself, including things that you should do or ought to do. Repeat the above 4 step process to thus talk to yourself in a more loving way. When you are judging yourself, simply reply, "Thank you for caring".
Jack Canfield talks about by turning his inner critic into his inner coach, He was able to stop feeling life a failure and start engaging in activities that made his dream a reality. As simple as this technique is, it is so powerful.
Remembering again that the deepest underlying motivation of your inner critic is to help you be better at what you do, tell your inner critic to stop criticizing and berating you or you will stop listening to it. Tell that inner voice you are not willing to listen to any more character assassinations, name-calling or browbeating - only specific steps you can take to do it better the next time.
