This is going to be the hardest thing for me. I just got a little book to write my negative thoughts in and WOW, this is overwhelming. I did not realize how much I have negative self talk around my health.

I've been using a journal to keep daily records, but I am having an issue with session 3. My mind seems cluttered with thoughts and when I try and sort out the negative so I can write them down I loose them? Anyone have any ideas how to get it out?

I'm having the same problem Scottds. I didn't realize my thoughts were so negative. Sometimes I've had one negative thought after another. I just try to write down the ones that stick out and not try to stress about it.

i want to have a more postive outlook on life. i want to be a more happier person around other people and feel happy around me instead of me bringing them down to.i would like to have suppourt on how to quit worrying about life everyday struggles.

batboy,

I here you, I stress over work and things so out of my control, but feel somehow responsible??? I've been better this week, but I know I have alot of this self talk to get over it completely.

I agree with everthing everybody is saying. The negative self-talk is really destructive when you become cognizant of it by keeping a journal. I find myself reluctant to write everthing down because there are so many and it keeps me thinking negatively. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Russ K

I've found that once I wrote them down and closed the book, they started to leave my mind. For me, it was kind of like writing a shopping list. Once it was written down, I didn't need to remember it again. It was kind of freeing actually.

I can't believe how much I negative think! This session really helped me a lot to recognize how I think... its been mind boggling.

Manofmusic... Thanks for the advise. Your right,once you write it down there is a kind of release of the thought. You can say to yourself, it was in my mind and now it's gone(expressed)and I can move forward.

Hello Everyone!

I posted a day or two ago, but I'm not sure where it posted to. Anyway...I too am finding the neg/positive self talk to be a challange. Since the very first session, my awareness to the way I reacted has been heightened. It has become a challange to see if I can go all day without saying anything neg. It's 10:00 pm and I have had more neg thoughts than I realized. This is definitely a challange, but a good one.

I too, feel like there are so many thoughts running through my head...whew!

I have had an easier day of writing my neg/positives today. It would appear that I am being faced with many situations today that has created neg self dialogue. Tho I have maintained my notebook today with a positive for the neg. How has everyone else done today?

I've been doing the program for about 2 1/2 weeks now. I had to do some public speaking today (something i am very petrified of) and i think it might of been worse. The program talks about that, that in the beginning the anxiety may be worse. I've been doing everything the program has said to do, but just too much anticipation of anxiety i guess. I have total confidence in the program and am looking forward to completely recovering. But the self doubt and neg self talk has got to go!

Hey newbies,
Congratulations on your progress thus far! Session 3 is tricky!
As you can see from the date that I registered, I'm a bit of a veteran. So, I think I can help.
Try one (or more) of the following:
1. Limit the time you write. If I wrote everything down when I started I would've never put the pen down.
2. Look for themes. Maybe write down 3 or 4. Carolyn suggested this to me and it really helped. For example. Someone identified health as a theme. . .
3. Rip up the page when your done. It's symbolic--and if you're at all embarrassed by what you write, as I was, there's no evidence of those "horrible" thoughts.
Hope this helps. Most importantly -- don't take it too seriously -- do what ya can and move on. You can improve on this later, when you need!

I'll see if I can get more vets to weigh in. . .

Hey all. First of all congrats on making the steps to overcome the 2 most common mental health issues in the world. That takes guts.

MC Grace had asked me to give some comments to help you guys out. I appreciate the confidence you have in me by the way.

Now I can only give you from my own experience and this is how it works out for me. Other people may have other ideas and thats great, you have to choose what you feel is best.

The most important thing when it comes to replacing negative thoughts is ACCEPTING THAT YOU HAVE THEM!!! You cannot expect to have struggles throughout your life and then your life being completely peachy...you're road of life has resulted in you having the thoughts, ideas, habits and behaviors you have today. Do you expect to make peanut butter out of lemons? So how do you accept it? You say to yourself...of course i have this, This came from ______ or I've had this fear and my mind is trying to protect me from going through the same thing i did in that painful memory...it is normal to have this. Another way to accept them is to look at the sillyness of the situation. How many times have you done something for the first time and expected to be the grandmaster of it? Do babies master walking the first attempt they make? How about perfection? How much more stressful is it to try to be perfect than it is to try being comfortable knowing that you do have imperfections? You have negative thoughts, we all have negative thoughts...i believe when you don't have them anymore they consider that death.

Ok so you have accepted your negative thoughts...Great job but now what? Try breathing. The relaxation cd is excellent for teaching us how to calm ourselves down when we get anxious. If you practice it enough, it will happen automatically when you start to feel anxious. Make sure you do it slowly...that is the key to turning off that fight or flight response. It is also has the most purging effect when it comes to the lymph system as opposed to anything else on this planet.

And then give yourself Credit dispite how it turns out! As long as you have even made an attempt at any limitation or goal, it is worth giving yourself credit. You're so used to thinking negatively and it takes alot of courage to even attempt to jump out of that thinking pattern. No matter what the outcome, you can still learn from the experience and it will bring you one step closer to getting you to where you are trying to get to. You can also get a jar or a box or something and write down the accomplishment and put it in. Everytime you feel that you aren't getting better or are a failure, you pull that jar out and you look at all those papers with your accomplishments on it.



Now it is rather impossible to replace every single negative thought you have (trust me i've tried) and you know that isn't always reasonable. Alot of us have jobs and things to do so it isn't always logical to do this...plus why would you want to spend your whole day doing this one thing? Pick 5 of the most negative thoughts and work with those. Start with that for now and then eventually look at patterns like MC Grace said. We may have millions of negative thoughts but when you really have a look, these are the same negative thoughts but you have made them look diffrent with your creativity (because we are very creative beings ). There are some days where you might just want to spend a few hours just working through all of the negative thoughts that come up and that is fine too if you really want to do that. I've done it a few times myself.


And thats how you do it....If you want you can try to look at them in very humerous ways if you can. Maybe you can get help from someone else when it comes to these thoughts. This may take some time before you can get it but it'll come and then you can just laugh your anxiety away


Neways I really hope this clarifys things. Keep up the good work

Mike