Negative Thoughts? Flip + Reverse Them

Inspired by positive affirmations and the amazing power of opposites utilized in transformational yoga nidra meditation, I used this to break free of my repetitive and totally self-sabotaging inner critic.

I have been a lifelong and voracious reader, having read thousands of books by hundreds of authors to know that most all of us have this scathing critic inside our heads.

I’m sure some don’t, some have trained or shut it away, but I’ve found it reassuring in knowing that millions of other human beings seem to have this same vicious voice inside their heads. None of us are crazy. And/or, we’re all a little crazy.

But, in mastering ourselves and getting out of negative thought patterns that I PROMISE are not helping you reach your goals… here is what I did for myself.

Pardon the negativity directed towards myself.

In starting up my business I’d find myself thinking things like:

You are so stupid!

You will never figure this out!

You are such a loser!

Our brains love to snowball and accumliate similar thoughts, and thus can find many, many examples to back up these claims.

Our inner coach might be a nasty b—, but at least she’s honest.

Our brains and subconcious minds accept the opposite just as readily, though modern neuroscience is confirming that most of us (perhaps to survive) really DO have negativity bias—a deep recollection of negative failtures and less readily availbe recolelctions of all our happy moments and successes.

So flip, reverse, and find the total opposite of what crap you’ve told yourself.

(To reiterate, I am certainly hard on myself and can be overly critical.)

I had to reflect on the first statement with humor and astonishment.

If there’s one thing I truly didn’t think I was, it was stupid.

Nobody ever bullied me for being stupid; though I’ve done my fair share of stupid THINGS, I really can’t think of a single person who has ever belittled me for my intelligence.

Call me a massive ass nerd, but my track record includes winning my school’s Geography Bee, spelling “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” as a first grader on stage to an audotirom of hundreds of my peers, in gifted math and reading programs since the first grade, an honors student through high school, a Scholars student at The Ohio State University. I was a lot of things, but I was perplexed and amused at what crap my mind could bestow upon me.

So I reversed with humor, a smile, and a light heart:

I am very intelligent.

I am great at problem solving.

I am a success in many realms of life, and am extremely competent.

Building muscle memory does not seem to be much different to reconditioning our minds, on purpose.

This is not a guide to become an overinfilated egomaniac, mind you, but an encouragement for people to wake up from what seems to be a self-esteem crisis on a global scale these days.

I am as bad as the worst, but thank God, I am as good as the best. Walt.

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