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Self Defeating Negative Thoughts – 3 Simple Steps to Eliminate Them

Posted on October 10th, 2008 by Scott

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When you make a mistake, do you scold yourself? Do you put yourself down or call yourself spiteful names? When you struggle making positive changes in your life, do you tell yourself what a “worthless” person you are and think that you’ll never do anything right?

Negative thoughts can be incredibly damaging to your self-esteem, especially if you do it on a regular basis. When you keep saying things like that to yourself, someday, you begin to believe them!

Most often these self defeating negative thoughts started as statements stated by the adults in your life when you were a child. They might have said something negative about you when your actions annoyed them, or perhaps they had a habit of saying unkind things even when you didn’t deserve it. As painful as these experiences can be, it’s even worse is when you pick up where they left off and keep repeating the same negative thoughts to yourself over and over!

The good news is that you can change your self defeating negative thoughts any time you want. You just have to know how to become aware of the tone of your messages and consciously replace them with more positive thoughts .

Try these 3 simple steps for starters:

1) Develop awareness of your self defeating negative thoughts . It may take practice, but if you keep “listening” in to your inner voice, you’ll begin to notice when you talk negatively to yourself.

2) Challenge the negative thoughts. When you notice yourself saying something negative such as, “You’re such a loser, you can’t do anything right” – stop yourself and challenge that belief. Is that really true? Maybe you do mess up sometimes, but do you ALWAYS mess up? Probably not.

3) Replace the self defeating negative thoughts with positive thoughts . When you realize you’re saying unkind and untrue things to yourself, simply turn it around in your mind. Using the above example, you might say, “Wow, that’s not true at all! I do plenty of things right. It’s true I make mistakes, but so does everyone. I’m a good person and I try my best. That’s good enough for me.”

Over time, your efforts will pay off in the form of higher self-esteem and self respect and your capabilities. More than likely it won’t happen overnight, but the more you work at turning your self defeating negative thoughts in positive thoughts, the better you’ll feel about yourself.

Re-Program Your Mind And Body to “ACHIEVE More SUCCESS” at
The Power Of Positive Habits

Scott Barker- EzineArticles- Expert Author

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