Is your thought life getting too negative? It’s tough in the world today to stay mindful and think about positive things. But you can learn how to control negative thinking.

How to remove negative thoughts from your mind

Do you find yourself with more negative thoughts than most? Being a negative person sucks the joy out of your life and often causes a downward spiral. It can lead to you losing friends, employment, clients, and more. No one wants to be around a negative nelly all the time.

Most of us know that negativity leads to depression and so we avoid negative people like the plague. But what if we’re the negative ones? If you’d like to control negative thinking and add a little more joy to your life, try these things.

Be grateful more often

***Gratitude is a powerful weapon against negativity. At first, just say “thank you” more often. Ideally out loud but at least in your head. Practice it at a restaurant with your waiter or someone else that helps you. Try being really appreciative of people’s time and effort on your behalf.

Then, look for things to be grateful for in your daily life – the air you’re breathing, your home, the clothes you’re wearing, your pets, your family, anything!

Keep a gratitude journal. Write down at least three things that have happened during the day that you’re grateful for. This will help put your mind in the right place to sleep. You won’t wake up with negativity having gone to sleep with a grateful heart.

It takes some practice, but putting gratefulness in the forefront of your mind will change your perception of a lot of things. Remember what you focus on you get more of. You can use scriptures and gratitude cards to help with this.

Get more exercise

Exercise releases endorphins into your body. These are natural “feel good” hormones that act faster, better, and safer than any drug (prescription or otherwise), and they are generated when you exercise.

Exercise doesn’t have to mean going to the gym or pool or even jogging. It can be as simple as dancing in your office or living room from time to time. Or you could deliberately go out for a walk! That works nicely as being out in nature is an awesome remedy for negativity. Whatever gets your blood pumping and your heartrate up a little.

Eat healthily

Comfort food can be anything but comforting. You may eat something that gives you a quick sugar high, but that’s soon followed by the negative side of eating food that’s not exactly healthy. Cut down on excess sugar. Cut down on drive-thru runs. Your budget and your body and mind will thank you. Better health leads to feeling better and better thought patterns.

Start with slightly healthier choices when you eat even if that means reading the labels. A good rule is not to eat things where you don’t understand several of the ingredients and wouldn’t add them if you were making the recipe at home. So if you don’t keep high fructose corn syrup or its artificial partner aspartame in your kitchen, don’t buy products with them in.

Make sure you are basing your diet on good healthy proteins, fats, and carbs. You need lots of meals with vegetables. Even if you think you hate vegetables, you can learn to like more of them like I did.

Eliminate negative thinking

Negativity isn’t something you’ve chosen to do. It’s something your mind has developed as a protection mechanism for you. And just as you can’t tell your nails to stop growing, it’s not easy to remove negativity or depression at a conscious level. You have to work at it. Especially if you were raised in a negative household.

Take small steps each day to control negative thinking in your life and watch yourself become a more positive person over time. It’s going to change every part of your life, and you are worth working on. I can’t wait to hear all about it.

Now for a joke:

Two ions are walking down the street…the first one says I’m missing an electron. The second one asks “Are you sure?” The first one says “I’m positive”

Ha ha ha!