Reprogramming Your
Subconscious Negative Thoughts

By Elaina Meiser

We all think negative things from time to time. The problem occurs when they start creeping up on us on a regular basis, without even realizing it.

This is your subconscious hard at work. It’s not on your side all the time, and it’s really hard to get it in-line if you don’t understand what it is, and what it’s trying to do.

If you’re looking to be a more positive person that thinks less negatively, you need to get to know your subconscious. Only then can you really begin to change the way it behaves in a positive manner.

What Is the Subconscious?
It’s basically the place that stores everything about you: your past experiences, memories, good moments, bad moments, behaviors, attitudes, achievements and problems. It’s sort of a catch-all for your life. It sends signals to your conscious-self, or loads entire memories, when you need access to them.

For example, if you were bitten by a dog, your subconscious would load this into your memory as you approach a different dog years later. You’ll probably even think “Hey, dogs bite. You may want to stay away.”

Where it gets really tricky, is when the subconscious puts you on autopilot without you knowing. You may be walking down the street one day and just feel the need to walk on the other side of the road. You may not even realize it, but you switched sides of the road because you heard a dog barking and your subconscious has moved you the other side of the street.

Your conscious mind never makes the decision – or even connects the dots on why you’re doing it. You just know that you felt like walking on the other side of the road and did it.

Negative thoughts can work the same way. You may not realize why you’re having the thought, or what past experience is bringing it forward, you just know you’re being negative.

The good news is that you can reprogram your subconscious to be less negative.

Recognizing Negativity
The first thing you can do before reprogramming yourself, is to catch the negativity as it happens. Recognize it, and realize that it has no power. It’s just a thought.

It’s the classic glass half full and glass half empty scenario. You need to recognize that the situation is exactly the same whether you have a negative view or positive view of the situation.

It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, or what situation or feeling you’re having, there is always a positive way to look at things. You have the power to decide how you act and feel once you realize these cues are just cues. They can’t actually control you.

Willpower
The simplest way to start reprograming the subconscious is just to overrule it. This technique relies heavily on recognizing the negativity.

When the negativity pops up, you just overrule it with sheer willpower. If the negativity is telling you not to go to the party because you’ll hate it, overrule it. Tell yourself the opposite is true, and that you’ll miss out on a good time.

Then you simply put one foot in front of the other and do it. If you use your willpower to overcome negativity enough times, you’ll eventually experience less negativity on the issue all together.

Visualization
Visualization is a very powerful tool. It can help you unlock potential and achieve things you never thought possible.

This makes visualization perfect for reprogramming negative thoughts. Once you can identify where you’re being negative, you can visualize yourself enjoying the same situation.

For example, if you find that you’re being negative when it comes to having the in-laws visit, you need to visualize the entire situation as being more pleasant. Before the visit, close your eyes and act out the visit in a very positive manner.

If you visualize yourself doing something enough times, your subconscious will just associate the visit with positive feelings and no longer push up subconscious negativity.

Positive Affirmation
Talking to yourself positively sounds absolutely crazy, but it works. Experts constantly point out that spending time alone helps unlock your potential. The reason for this is that you can never truly lie to yourself when you’re alone.

If you give yourself enough positive affirmation, you’ll find that you actually start to believe the things you’re telling yourself. For one reason or another, we just have a hard time believing all of our positive qualities. You need to convince yourself.

If you find you’re being subconsciously negative about your appearance, your attitude, your work, or your abilities – even though you know it’s not true – you should have a little chat with yourself every day. Self-affirmation is a great way to really get to know yourself. To find out what you actually believe or don’t believe. You may just be surprised.

Hypnosis
This is a bit more of a professional grade solution, but can work wonders on the right individual. It can actually change lives.

Remember the dog example from above? All of your past experiences has programmed your subconscious to know that dogs are a negative experience. Hypnosis is a way to bypass the actual experience and install it directly in your subconscious.

Hypnosis could cause you to cross the street without ever having met a dog by inserting the same level of experience directly. The opposite is also true. It can turn negative experiences into positive ones. It can instill a love of dogs without the positive experiences.

People have used hypnosis to quit smoking, despite the very real physical withdrawal they feel. That’s how powerful it can be in reprogramming your subconscious.

It’s not easy to reprogram your subconscious if you don’t know what it’s doing. So, as the old adage goes, you need to understand yourself first. Once you do that, you’ll be well on the way to making yourself just a little bit better each day.