How to remove negative thoughts from subconscious mind

How to remove bad thoughts from the subconscious mind? Is the question on your mind right?

Negative thoughts drain your energy and can make you feel like a slave.

The subconscious mind if left unchecked can become your biggest tormentor. It can decide if you have a good day or bad day based on the thoughts you entertain.

You likely have had the experience of ruminating on a negative thought over the course of a day and feeling powerless as a result.

There are ways to stop this bad habit.

In this article you will learn 3 effective strategies to help eliminate your thoughts of negativity.

Remove negative thoughts from the subconscious mind with mindfulness

When I was younger I used to get worried whenever my parents left me alone.

Each time they would go out to the shops, I would have negative thoughts about them getting into a car accident and not coming home.

If they spent a little more time than usual shopping, they would receive a call from me – checking if everything was alright.

These thoughts tormented me as I felt like I had no power to stop them.

As soon as I would start thinking these thoughts, my body would get into a state of anxiety, worry and panic.

Physiologically, the things happening in my mind were real – to my body my parents were in a car crash.

After many years of struggling with the issue I found a powerful solution.

The solution was mindfulness.

To be precise it was a full body scan.

Whenever I would start feeling the anxiety rising in my body from the negative subconscious thoughts, I would consciously move my attention to my feet.

So, I would shift my consciousness into my feet as if no other part of my body existed.

I would feel the carpet beneath my toes.

Pay attention to every little detail.

I would feel the warmth in my feet and even sense the rhythm of my pulse.

I would move with great levels of attention from my heel to my toes and back down again.

After doing this a few times I would move up to my ankles and repeat the process.

Eventually, I would have finished my whole body and magically the negative thoughts would disappear. 

Why does this work?

Your conscious awareness is based on a limited bandwidth.

You can’t process a million things at once.

When your subconscious mind creates a negative thought, it’s easy to use most of your bandwidth on it and get lost in the mind.

This is what happens when you daydream; you lose track of where you are physically because your consciousness is residing somewhere else.

Putting your attention on what’s happening around you (mindfulness) is a great way to create a pattern interrupt between the conscious and subconscious.

In advertising, marketers use ‘pattern interrupts’ to grab your attention waking you up from your stopper.

Suddenly shifting your attention from your thoughts to your body does the same thing.

We don’t normally pay attention to our bodies, so this distracts us sufficiently for the negative thoughts to go away.

Remove Negative Thoughts From The Subconscious Mind With Affirmations

Sometimes the negative thoughts we have are specific phrases.

“You don’t deserve to be happy.”

“You are so freaking fat!”

“No one cares about what you have to say.”

At times these thoughts can be echoes from the past.

Things we heard from authority figures such as parents, teachers or friends.

The subconscious mind has a tendency of putting these negative thoughts on repeat if they are left unchecked.

The key is to first become aware of the pattern.

Whenever you catch a negative thought write it down in your Notes app in your phone.

Do this for a week or two.

When you look over your notes, pay attention to any patterns you might find.

Normally, there will be one area of your life with a disproportionate number of negative thoughts.

Create affirmations which affirm the opposite of the negative thought.

For instance, you might notice the following trend regarding your appearance.

“I am too skinny.”

“How can I call myself a man with no muscle.”

“I should really eat more food.”

Clearly the negative thoughts are revolving around being skinny.

The appropriate affirmations will counteract these negative phrases – imagine what a kind friend would say.

“I am at a healthy body weight.”

“I am a man regardless of how much muscle I have.”

“I am working on building more muscle and enjoying the process.”

Do the affirmations as soon as you wake up while looking in the mirror for two months and watch your negative thoughts disappear.

Why does this work?

The mind doesn’t like holding two opposing views at the same time.

You can’t imagine yourself as both fat and skinny.

You cannot be rich and poor.

Holding onto opposing views causes cognitive dissonance – an uncomfortable feeling.

So, the mind prefers to resonate with only one of the realities.

When you loop over specific negative thoughts you tend to identify with them.

Identifying with them is having them become a part of your self-image.

This identification process propagates the negativity.

Affirmations are one of many ways to create new realities about yourself.

If you do them enough you can override certain negative ideas you have about yourself.

This creates a new identity which does not cohere with the negative thoughts.

If you would like to learn about other ways of reprogramming your subconscious mind, check out our course Hacking the Subconscious.