In my journey to find inspiration for the day, I have come across another amazing interview with Lisa Nichols. If you don’t know who that is, I encourage you to watch at least one of her interviews so you can understand why she is so inspiring.
Although she tells the same story over and over in her speeches (it’s such a great story and example for all of us), this particular telling included a really simple exercise that she uses to remove the negative thoughts that might hold her back in life, or specifically in generating wealth and manifesting money.
It sounded like a perfectly practical exercise, so I thought I’d give it a shot and share my results.
4 Simple Steps to Get Rid of Negative Thinking
1. Write down all the lies in your head.
Take a pencil and lined notebook paper, and write every lie you can think of that pops into your head, leaving 4 spaces between each.
Examples of lies:
It’s not easy to live a prosperous life.
Making money is hard work.
People are only born rich or very luck.
I can only earn enough to barely survive.
You have to suffer for money.
I don’t need money because it doesn’t make me happy.
When I started this part of the exercise it was kind of hard to come up with lies, because the second I’d think of one, I’d think of a reason that lie could be true. So I worked hard to just focus on the exercise itself and get them written down – any negative thought that would pop into my head that might be blocking me from having what I want and being successful.
Like Suze Orman talks about in her book The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, these thoughts started connecting with earlier memories, some from childhood, where the lies seemed to have been created.
For example, I remembered how hard my mom worked to make money. She was a single-mother, working insane hours to pay rent, get food, and put me through private school. I just remember moments of her stress over money and times I asked for things and she couldn’t give them – not that she didn’t want to.
I specifically remembered Christmas when I was seventeen. It was a particularly rough year financially, although I had no real perspective as to how or why, because my mom did pretty well at keeping that off my plate. But when I went to open my Christmas presents, she broke down crying because she knew she wasn’t able to give me the kind of Christmas that I had grown to expect.
That Christmas I got a pair of roller skates from a yard sale, and a set of nail polish and lipstick that was probably from a dollar store. I didn’t care – I absolutely loved the time I got to spend with my mom. But I remember her crying and I remember feeling like having nice things or lots of money must be a real struggle.
But the truth is, I went to friggen’ private school. I got to take dance classes and vocal lessons. We always had nutritional food, and we sometimes got to eat out. I had my own room, a stereo and lots of albums (CDs and tapes), and I was a happy teenager.
Which leads me to the next step in the process.
2. Take a red pen and write a truth to counter each lie.
Beneath each lie, in that space that you left, write in the truth. The trick is, you have to write in the truth whether it is currently true or you believe it’s true. Write in what you want the truth to be – because that is the truth you are looking to create.
Example:
Lie – It’s not easy to live a prosperous life.
Truth – I live a prosperous life.
By the time I was done with my lies, my mind had pretty much started throwing truths at me. I think I got sick of thinking negatively as I did it. I was dying to get rid of these lies.
While some of the truths I wrote were not plainly evident – I don’t see myself as living a prosperous life – as I went through them they started to become more realistic to me and I started to feel like they could be true.
3. Take a day and read through each lie and truth, three times through.
Next time you think of the lie, your mind will begin to associate it with the truth that stood out in red.
This was the easiest part of the exercise and led me to automatically start rejecting negative thoughts and replacing them with positive truths as they happened.
4. Erase the lies.
Only truth should remain.
At this point, I did find that I was having a much easier time acknowledging that I am a successful person to whom wealth comes easily, and I had no problem ejecting the lies.
I think this is a great exercise and it’s one I’ll keep trying when the negative thoughts come back in.
By postulating only positive thinking, and using any failures as learning exercises (instead of calling it a failure), I have personally been able to experience a much more productive life where money comes to me easily.
Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Feedback
What do you think of this exercise? Have you tried it? Did it work?
Comments bring luck!
I believe this exercise is helpful, but a lot of us can’t really identify which thoughts are lies. A lot of negative thoughts are realistic and true.
That shows the value of having a counselor or mentor who can listen to your thoughts and identify which ones are lies.
Recently, I had the negative thought that “I am not worthy of wealth and success”. I decided whether that was true or not was irrelevant. Life is not about getting what you deserve.
I definitely agree with you there, having a counselor or professional help you with finding the lies is definitely beneficial. I think that doing this exercise, after sitting for a while and working to write down these negative thoughts, it does start to come pretty easily.
You are by far quite worthy of all the wealth and success in the world – I’m glad you’re able to recognize that. Keep it up.
I’ve personally found that negative thinking affects us in a number of bad ways, whether it comes to life, in general, or building an empire for a full-time income.
I can certainly relate to the lies you’ve highlighted, especially in the past when I had the “employee” mindset.
I’ve also found one of the main reasons why we tell ourselves these lies is to justify why we don’t take action to change our lives. Sometimes, it’s much easier to talk ourselves out of it and stay in a job like most people.
Thanks also for sharing your story, which I’m sure others can relate too.
I remember a time when my mom, a single parent also struggled financially. And although we didn’t have much in the 1980s, she was still an amazing parent (and still is), and I had an awesome childhood.
Thanks for The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom book recommendation too. 🙂
The employee mindset is such a good thing to bring up. We’re all sort of hypnotised by this idea that we have to have a stable 9-5 job, with a steady income and benefits, and we trap ourselves in little boxes that are so hard to escape. The truth is, we all have the capability inside of us to do whatever our hearts desire, and it’s just a matter of getting rid of these ideas that have been built in – and then creating our own truths.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and recommendations. I love when I find mutual people who have had similar experiences to mine and can relate. I wish you all the riches and success in the world.
I haven’t tried yet the exercise. I think I’ll try to do it over the weekend.
To be honest, there have been a lot of times in my life, years actually that I was thinking that I would never have a lot of money. My parents were always struggling for money. They were having fights all the time and it was terrible. They were working hard but they had problems. So I think I was always thinking that you had to be born rich. But not anymore. Now I keep my eyes wide open and start to see the truth. I can earn as much as I want. I just have to want it bad enough.
You hit the nail on the head, Jenny. When I realized that I grew up watching people (my parents) struggle with income, a sort of idea set in that this is what making money is all about. Many of us in the middle to lower class in America deal with this and never realize it. I’m happy to hear you’re opening up your mind to seeing that, and I do believe it will lead you to the ability to make whatever money you want to make. Best wishes!
After reading this article, it put me in deep thought. It literally made me start to think of negative thoughts and trying the exercises to try and help myself. I believe I actually feel weight lifted after doing the exercise. I am now thinking about how I can turn all of my negative thoughts into positive ones. Thank you.
That’s great to hear, Fred. I suppose that was my intention. I think we all run around with negative thinking without even realizing it, so it’s good to have a way to turn that off for a more uplifting and successful view on life. Thanks for stopping by.
I do the exercise and i feel UNSTOPPABLE. Its incredible what happen when you put your effort in changing your mindset.
I read the entire post 4 times and i want to print it and share with my friends!!
Thank you for the value, the dedication and the time to write these gold words!!