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Turn Down the Volume

One way to quiet the mind is to imagine you have a volume dial on your negative thoughts.  Simply turn down the volume on your thoughts until you don’t hear them anymore.  I recommend turning up thoughts that say, I love you!  I am safe.  Life is good.  Positive thoughts can have all the volume they need to be heard.

Shh…

A really simple way to quiet the mind is to interrupt a forming thought (you can feel a thought coming on) with “Shhhh…”

Cancel

Another simple and very effective way to quiet the mind is to use the word “cancel”.  When a thought begins to form interrupt it with “cancel”.  In the same way, an umpire would gesture, “safe” I wave my hands when I say cancel.  Unless of course, I’m in a grocery line.

“And this too…”

Nico Hansen describes a wonderfully effective way to clear negative and undesired thinking.  A statement is made as the thought forms interrupting it.  It goes like this, “And this too I surrender to God (or Source or my Higher Self, Allah, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Peace, Love, etc. )  I used this phrase for months with great success and eventually shortened it to “And this too” and eventually “And”.

Morning Pages

In the Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron describes a process of clearing the mind through the writing of what she calls, “Morning Pages”.  This can be a very effective method of clearing the mind of it’s clutter.  Because the nature of writing encourages thought I would suggest it only to people who are addicted to thinking.  It may offer some awareness from which to shift into really letting go negative thinking for good.

Our system of upbringing is based on what to think not on how to think.

~ Krishnamurti

A few more points about thinking and negative thoughts:

There is nothing wrong with thinking if you have willed your mind to do so.   However, when rogue thoughts rattle around your head like BeeBees in a tunafish can, and they are attached to negative emotions, it’s time to let go.   It’s true many people are addicted to negative thinking and feeling.  If you live with someone like this I don’t encourage you to try to get them to let go of this compulsion.  Instead you be willing to let go of your desire for them to be different.  Celebrate how their way of being is an inspiring gift for you to let go.