How to Remove Negative Thoughts from Subconscious Mind

In his book ‘Attention and Effort,’ Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman states that paying attention to something spikes up our brain’s metabolic activity. Our body metabolism fluctuates as per our physical tasks; the same rule applies to the brain too.

Not all tasks demand the same amount of cognitive resources. For example, coding for a website requires more brain effort than making a cup of coffee. Meaning, you don’t focus completely on coding, then it can lead to big mistakes, and you will spend even more time rectifying those mistakes.

According to a medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, researchers found a link between cynicism and heart diseases & dementia.

Researchers at King’s College London found that individuals with repetitive negative thinking can develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Meanwhile, positive thinking can increase the brain’s productivity, and enhance creativity, focus, and problem-solving skills, allowing a person to live a long and happy life.

Is our conscious mind connected with our subconscious mind?

Yes, our conscious mind is deeply connected with our subconscious mind (Also known as the Preconscious mind).

Our conscious mind receives information from our five senses and allows us to think and rationalize. Therefore, we always tend to find logic before believing in anything. However, our subconscious mind doesn’t act on that principle.

It is ruled by instinct and emotions. Its job is to make us act on something. For example, if you get thirsty, you automatically grab water without thinking. That’s our subconscious mind talking right there.

Our subconscious mind makes us act differently depending on what we are feeling from the inside. You may have noticed that people often complain about how they have back-to-back bad incidents.

This phenomenon is called automatic thoughts in psychology. It all starts with a single failure and creates a domino effect. Once we think that today will be a bad day, the subconscious mind registers that thought and makes us act that way.

This is not the only way negative thoughts trigger our subconscious mind. It can also come through repetitive thoughts or statements from individuals or people around us, such as parents, teachers, partners, etc.

Can you remove negative thoughts from the subconscious mind?

Of course, you can, but it is not going to be an easy journey. According to Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D. & stem cell biologist, we can reprogram the subconscious pattern of our mind.

The key is through repetition. For example, when you prepare a cup of coffee for the first time, you may have given it a lot of attention.

However, the more you keep preparing it, the lesser attention you put into it. Now, you are so habituated to it that you can prepare it while watching TV.

It means, that once your subconscious mind registers information, it will stay with it until it gets overwritten again.

Now that we have addressed how our subconscious works, let’s discuss how to remove negative thoughts from our subconscious mind and introduce positivity.

Steps to remove negative thoughts from the subconscious mind

Reprogram Your Subconscious

From walking to eating to riding a bicycle, all humans have some prebuilt programs inside them. Now, our mind keeps catching up with some additional programs as we experience new things in life such as emotions, self-confidence, skills, education, etc.

If you are struggling to get something in life, you don’t have support programs for it. So, your first job is to find the patterns of the programming and change them.

Now, most people believe that they can talk to their subconscious mind believing that their subconscious mind will record their statement like a tape recorder. This doesn’t happen this way.

These patterns are subconscious for a reason. It means your mind is not consciously aware of them.

Let’s assume you often bite your nails every minute, but you stop doing it when you realize it. This is called developing body awareness. However, a few minutes later, you again start to do it.

You cannot kick that habit all of a sudden as it’s been programmed in your subconscious for years. However, if you stop doing it every time you realize it, you can stop it over time.

This is just a small example of how you can rewrite your subconscious through body awareness. Now, let’s talk about mental awareness.

For example, most people judge others by their looks, intelligence, money, dressing style, etc. Now, this bad habit doesn’t stop there. Sometimes we judge ourselves as well.

Such mental habits happen on a mind level, and to eradicate them, you need to work on your mental awareness.

Try to think positively about others or yourself. For instance, if a person has a bad haircut, think of a good spouse or a loving parent instead of thinking of something bad.

The same goes for your insecurity and negative thinking as well. Whenever you can feel like a failure, think of all the good things about you. You may be a loyal and honest person- a rare quality to find in a person these days.

Try to adopt this method in your daily life and repeat it every time you think negatively. You notice a significant change in your mind’s programming patterns over time.

Detach Your Thoughts

We often get lost in our thoughts in our day-to-day life. You need to detach yourself from those thoughts and watch them carefully to read the patterns whenever you are getting these thoughts.

Once you start finding the pattern of your negative thoughts, then replace them with positive ones. This weakens the negative patterns and gradually makes you a master of your mind.

Start by sitting comfortably on a yoga mat or your couch. Then close your eyes, take a deep breath, and calm yourself. Let your mind run its course, don’t try to control them. If you realize your mind is starting to engage with the thoughts, then open your eyes for a few seconds.

Some thoughts may strike up strong emotions inside you. Instead of suppressing those emotions, try to feel the energy behind these thoughts.

As you continue with your thoughts, you will discover several negative patterns. Once you start recognizing them, you will learn to disengage with them and replace them with positive patterns.

Recreate Positive Emotions 

Overpowering your negative emotions with positive ones remains one of the easiest solutions to train your subconscious mind. First, you need to be aware of your emotions by digging deeper inside your mind. What is causing this emotion? Why am I feeling like this? What are the factors that are bothering me?

Find these answers, and the solution is right there.

Let’s assume you are inside a crowded mall and suddenly felt anxious.

Maybe it is because you don’t like being surrounded by many people. Maybe the fear of being stared at and judged by strangers bothers you. Such negative thoughts often cloud your thinking and make you feel anxious and uninvited in a crowded place.

Whenever you encounter such situations, your untrained mind cannot deal with them. You can train your mind by recreating positive emotions.

You cannot run away from a crowded place. It’s like running away from challenges and tough situations. Instead, channel your negative energy by recreating positive emotions. Start by imagining what you will do when you reach your home.

Would you lie comfortably and watch a movie with some ice cream? Or draw a nice bath and soak your stress away with a glass of red wine?

Thinking of a wonderful and happy future can create positive energy inside you and ward off these negative thoughts. Practice this formula every time you come across such an awkward and uneasy situation.

Slowly, your subconscious mind will adapt to such challenging situations and won’t trigger your anxiety in the future.

Read Your Body’s Reaction

Anxiety and overwhelming can disrupt both your mind and body. Some people start behaving erratically or go way quieter with their bodies shaking.

In extreme situations, some people’s back of the head and the suboccipital muscles get tensed up, causing headaches and back pain.

Once you become aware of your body’s reaction to a tense situation, you will learn how to relax in your conscious state. That’s why taking a deep breath helps in calming down a person having a panic attack.

The best way to feel the inside of your body is through meditation. 

Start feeling the energy flowing inside your body, from the soles of your feet to the tip of your head.

It is also called a spiritual scanning of the body. When done in precious, you can discover the tension point during the scan.

When you discover such a part, pause for a moment and focus on relaxing and rejuvenating that part.  

The goal here is to keep your body as relaxed as possible.

Use Subliminal Stimuli

Subliminal stimuli refer to a process of exposing individuals to rapid-moving pictures or words to stimulate certain responses.

Subliminal advertisements gained prominence when James Vicary flashed the slogan “Drink Coca Cola and Eat popcorn” on a movie screen at a speed fast enough to avoid a person’s conscious mind.

As a result, it increased the sales of Coca-Cola and popcorn by 57.7 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively.

However, this form of massage has its limitations. It only works when people already have a relevant goal in their minds.

It can encourage people to choose a brand when they are already hungry or thirsty but cannot make them thirty otherwise. The same happens in another research, where researchers flashed an iced tea brand to a group of people.

Consequently, participants who were feeling thirsty went for that brand. So, subliminal messages can guide a person in a direction who already is motivated for the same.

Audio-based subliminal stimuli is one of the most popular self-help audio programs developed for people for weight loss, memory enhancement, addiction recovery, self-esteem development, etc. Such stimuli work on a subconscious level.

Users are directed to use them before going to bed. Even when you are sleep, your mind never stops working. The moment you fall asleep, it switches to a subconscious state. These audio-stimuli and binaural beats help restructure your conscious mind by eradicating negative thoughts and recoding them with new ones.

Psychologists believe that subliminal audio helps the subconscious mind absorb positive affirmations more quickly. These subliminal audios are designed to bring positive energy inside you without putting you in a trance-like self-hypnotizing.

Reverse Affirmations With Mind Dumping

In this process, you have to write down your negative thoughts and reverse them.

Make sure to follow this rule- always write them in the present tense. For example, if you think, “I can never pass this test.” You rewrite it with “I am prepared, and I can easily pass this test.“

Mind downing is another way to remove negative thoughts from the subconscious mind and block them from entering your mind.

Sleep is an essential part of your life that contributes to your growth, health, and emotions.

Grab a piece of paper and write down all the negative thoughts such as fear, doubts, worries, etc.

Then convert them to positive affirmations. Now read those positive affirmations at least ten times before going to bed.

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