What Are The Steps
Of Positive Thinking?

To benefit from positive thinking you need to be able to replace your negative thoughts with positive ones.

How do you do that?

Follow these steps of positive thinking:

1. Be aware of your thoughts. You could choose a quiet spot to just sit and observe what goes on in your mind. Don't spend time on any thought; just watch how your mind wanders and take note of the direction of your thoughts. Meditation helps to do this.

   This is a very good exercise to know oneself. You will discover whether you tend to worry about the future, to think about problems, or to look forward to what you are going to do next, for example.

2. Realise your negative thoughts.You may need a bit of soul-searching, as some of our negative thoughts are really deep beliefs about life.

   Negative thoughts trigger negative emotions. A negative emotion (fear, jealousy, worry, anger, and many more) gives you a sign that there is something going on that doesn't match with what you actually want.

   You can take your negative emotions as indicators that you are maintaining negative thoughts. Most of the people often just react to the negative emotions, without thinking.

   Don't be at the mercy of your emotions; rather use them to know yourself better and understand which thoughts and beliefs cause your negative emotions.

3. Change your negative thoughts for positive ones. You can only think of one thing at a time, so if you think about something positive, there is obviously no room for negativity.

   Acknowledge the existence of the negative thought. Replace it for a positive one. For example, if you find yourself worrying about bills and money, start thinking about a good friend with whom you have a great relationship. Think about the next time you will see them. Get excited about it.

   This example is simple though. If you wanted to dig deeper, you could still think about what is worrying you, but in a way that is positive about it and made you feel good. Having a positive attitude is seeing the glass half full.

   Susan Minarik shows a great technique to get rid of negative thoughts in her package "Winning the tomorrow game". There are also other good positive thinking programs that can help you become a more positive person.

   You can always be supportive of yourself and take the necessary steps of positive thinking by repeating these positive self statements.

Don't carry the world upon your shoulders

There are times that it does not seem so easy to replace negative thoughts, especially if you think you have a big problem.

Realize that I say "seem" because thinking positively is always a matter of choice, ultimately, and it is always possible. Our mind just tricks us to think that it is not, when we are feeling down.

It is necessary to acknowledge that we may feel overwhelmed. If the circumstances are "too much", let them just be for a while and focus on living in the present you are in.

Come back to your issues when you are ready to deal with them.

From that point, the power is yours to follow these steps of positive thinking and choose something positive to focus on. You may use these quotes for positive thinking to inspire you or choose to do one of these positive thinking activities.

Beware though...

If your negative emotions repeat themselves frequently, you may be keeping an old belief that does not match with what you now want. In this case, thinking about something different and positive will not help you in the long run: the negative emotion will come back.

These steps of positive thinking will help you in the moment, but it is better then to deal with the actual belief and stop having negative emotions. You may like to explore why you keep a belief that makes you feel bad. Wouldn't it make sense to change it?

Summing up the steps of positive thinking: