Fighting negative thoughts

Fighting negative thoughts doesn’t work. Whenever we engage with a negative thought we are keeping the momentum going. Even if we try not to think of the negative thought, it may feel like a part of our mind is still aware of its existence, as if it is lurking ready to appear at any second. These thoughts can only make an impact if we give them a stage to perform on.

An exercise we can practice is to simply accept the thought. We don’t fight it, we don’t engage with it. Like an umpire observing a tennis match, we can witness but we don’t have to take part. We can even thank the mind or say to ourselves ‘oh hi, yep I hear you. Thanks!” in a slightly mischievous or playful way.

Following this we return to the present moment, the here and now, and we focus our attention on what is happening in front of our eyes. And when another negative thought crops up, we do exactly the same.

We are not at the mercy of thoughts and thoughts are not rules or instructions. They are simply bits of information. Once we change our relationship with thoughts, we remove the stage for them to perform on.