You Can’t Just Remove Negative Thoughts,You Have to Replace Them
Updated: Aug 27
Week 4: Protect Your Peace
We have spent the past three weeks learning how to guard the door to our minds, recognize the thoughts that quietly steal our peace, and replace those thoughts with ones that help us grow.
Today is the final step in the Positive Thoughts Series. We learned that removing negative thoughts is important, but now what?
If we don’t replace the negative thoughts with something positive, then they will work their way back into your life.
If you have a garden and you spend a day cleaning out the weeds, you look back at your work and think it looks great. The problem with just standing back and admiring the now weed-free garden is if you do not plant new flowers, the weeds will come back. This is true with our minds as well. We need to intentionally plant positive thoughts of hope, peace, and encouragement.
What Are You Feeding Your Mind?
Our minds are constantly influenced by the things we watch, listen to, and who we spend time with. We may not realize that all of those things shape the way we think.
Food affects our physical health, as what we feed our mind affects our emotional and mental health. If we surround ourselves with negativity, criticism, and fear, then it makes it harder to experience peace and keep negative thoughts at bay.
Fill Your Mind with Things That Build Hope
When we practice gratitude, it changes our focus from what is missing to thinking about all of the good in our lives. It shifts your focus from what is missing in your life to what is already good in your life. Choosing to notice your blessings helps put your mind in a more positive way of thinking.
Take the time every day and think of at least three things you are grateful for. Small moments of gratitude can have a powerful impact on the way you think.
The positive or negative thoughts we feed our minds can affect the way we respond to stress, disappointment, loneliness, and other difficult emotions. When we allow criticism, fear, and anger to take over, food can quickly become a way to find comfort or escape.
Remember that one decision does not define your day. Give yourself grace. Say to yourself what you would say to a friend who was going through the same thing.
Bringing It All Together
Our thoughts that we repeat to ourselves every day will influence how we feel emotionally and physically. A negative thought can increase our shame, which in turn makes us look for comfort. That comfort is usually food because our brain always goes to what worked before.
Within this four-week series, we learned to guard our minds, and recognize the thoughts that steal our peace. We learned that replacing negative thoughts and emotions with encouraging and compassionate thoughts will encourage growth.
A garden needs ongoing attention and care, but so does our mind. Make sure you continue to pull the weeds and plant new healthy plants. Plant thoughts of gratitude, hope, patience, and self-compassion. These will help you when the negative thoughts do try to take over.
It is impossible to control every thought that enters your mind, but you can choose the ones you will feed. Every time you make a choice to choose positive thoughts, you are building a healthier relationship with your thoughts, your emotions, and food.
If you are working to understand emotional eating, quiet negative self-talk, and build a more peaceful relationship with food, you don’t have to do it alone.
The private Beyond Emotional Eating Community is a supportive space for women who want to better understand emotional eating, cravings, stress, and their relationship with food. It is not a weight-loss or dieting community. Inside, you’ll find practical tools, exclusive resources, group support, and monthly live coaching calls, all offered without judgment.
Comments