Release your negative thoughts

How do you deal with negative thoughts?

Our minds can be full of all kinds of thoughts throughout the day. They can be helpful and they can also be harmful. They can enable us to get closer to our goals and they can take us away from our goals.

Here is an example of how I used journaling to help deal with the negative thoughts.

I had moments when I needed to get negative thought out of my head. I would use my journal as
a way to do this. Below is something I wrote in March 2000 about how I was feeling at the time.

JOURNAL ENTRY MARCH 19, 2000

I’m feeling isolated. I don’t know if that’s the word, but I don’t feel like talking to anybody. It’s
like someone could say whatever they wanted to me & I would just sit there not replying. Little
things have been frustrating me. It’s like I just want to hide in my room for a while. My self esteem
has depleted & I don’t know why. This seems to happen every few months.

Nothing in my head,
Nothing out of my mouth,
All is hiding, nowhere to be found,
I feel better alone,
With no one around,
It makes things easier,
I’m in control of the nothing in my head,
Until I have to go,
Maybe I’ll just stay,
Find something new,
That’s when I feel better,
Until it becomes new no more,
I desire new,
One day I sense it’s new no more,
It’s now old & used,
It doesn’t look or feel the same as when I first got it,
I’ve become used to it,
It no longer excites me,
I cause this to happen,
I only savour the beginning & don’t,
Look down the road,
If it doesn’t work by now,
Don’t forget that no matter what,
You learn something new every day.

Exercise for You

There are many ways you can release negativity from your mind. Try writing about your negative thoughts or try one of the ways I list below.

1. Use journaling to write out everything that bothers you. You can then read it over and see if
it really is impacting you that much.

2. Record yourself saying all the negative things on your mind then notice how you feel
afterwards. Delete the recording if you don’t feel comfortable keeping it.

3. Record a video of yourself expressing your thoughts. You could watch it and see yourself in
a different light. Just by seeing yourself in that state of mind may trigger you to view things
differently. Delete the recording if you don’t feel comfortable keeping it.

4. Talk with someone about the problems you are facing, whether it be a friend, family member,
college, doctor, counsellor, life coach, or someone else.

Review what you did and reflect on what you thought about it and what these thoughts are giving
you. What is their purpose?

How can you look at these thoughts differently?

Exercise for Your Team or Group

As a group, if people are open to it, your team can spend some time sharing any negative thoughts
they are having, which could be impacting their ability to be fully engaged in their work. Write
about these here.
It is important to provide a safe environment for people to share with the group. The intention of
sharing should be focused on allowing people to share without judgement. Based on what the team
has shared, how can the team use this learning as a way to move forward to keep in alignment with
the team’s overall goal or intention?