in session 3 I have had so much awareness of neative thoughts & writing them down all week but I have not added the positive ones yet. Move to 4 or stay on 3 another week? Thank you!

Yes, I had the same thing happen to me. Maybe it was trying too hard to master everything and knowing I haven't. I called someone at the stress center and they told me to go to session 8, "what if thinking". Maybe you can try that and see if it helps you.

Karen

Karen, I just saw your response.Thank you & I will take a look at session 8.Hope the best for you. Susie

Hi Susie,
I'm in Chapter 3 also. It seems like alot of work to write down a negative thought and then change it to a positive thought. Have you tried it that way instead of just writing negative thoughts. Lucinda said that Lesson 3 is the cornerstone for the whole program and that Lesson 3 is one of the most important ones that will help all the lessons that follow work. When I realized how many negatives thoughts I have everyday I was amazed. But, now when a negative thought comes to mind I either write the negative thought down then turn it into a positive thought or just think a positive thought to get the negative one out of my head. Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes

New Jen,
I have taken this whole week to just become aware of my thoughts. It has taken me all week. I began doing exactly what you described, having a negative thought, noticing it & catching myself(its more like, ("OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE I WAS JUST THINKING THAT FOR 3 OR 4 MINUTES AND DIDN"T EVEN REALIZE IT!!!!! WHERE WAS I ???"
Then I think of a positive and begin to go over it over & over.
But I do recall Lucinda saying it is not enough to do this. She said we must write it down.
Believe me I love the easier way. I am one of those "ADD" people who is creative,spontainious, excited & wonderful & always looking for a piece of paper and a pen EVEN when they were attached to you. I will lay them down,loose them. Thats another issue all together.
But I would bet my "ADD" that the recognizing and changing the language from negative to positive in our heads is not enough.
I am committing to writing it down. Say a prayer for me!!!!

New Jen,
I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed seeing your response. Each time I write anything I think,"nobody will read this. nobody connects to me. i am invisible & don't matter. why do i even bother."
It Is amazingly VALIDATING TO HAVE SOMEONE SAY YOUR NAME AND SPEAK DIRECTLY TO YOU. AMAZING.
thank you so much.
"people will read this and see how vulnerable I am. It is safe here and my vulnerability is honest and extremely important to my growth.
These feeling coming up do make me feel badly but I am a strong person and I am choosing to feel these feelings to educated myself. I crave a better quality of life and have come so very far that this imformation is changing my life.My life is important and I am valuble."

Hey Susie wrenn

Lesson 3 is definately a big one and you come to alot of realizations. The thing with lesson 3 is it isn't completely finished after you move to lesson 4 or 5 or 15. Sometimes it is better to move onto the next lesson as you can get more insights that help you to replace the thoughts on paper. For instance, lesson 4 is about expectations. Some of our high expectations are a little irrational. Figuring out why may help you to accept why you are thinking negatively and it makes it easier to find and even accept the positive replacement thought.

Mike

Thank you all for the posts. This has been very helpful. I'm going over session 3 for the second time for review and still feel like I'm not ready to move on. I think that's part of my "high expectations" that NinjaFrodo (love that name by the way) talks about.

It's also helpful knowing that lesson 3 will be used throughout the program so I'm committed to moving on. I'm going to do just as Lucinda says and continue to write down my negative thoughts every day throughout the program. I know I won't catch every one of them but if I can get just a few every day, I feel that would be helpful.