Artwork by Zachari Logan (http://zachariloganart.com/)
There are many ways to change negative thoughts into positive ones. A series of negative thoughts combined with a downward spiral usually leads to anxiety which then turns into depression. This is what I’ve noticed anyway. There’s a method called Neuro Linguistics Programming that I’ve been recently introduced to which allows you to shift your internal dialogue from a negative to a positive. Since I don’t know much about this, I’ll just supply a few links at the bottom and you can take it from there.
I’ve been through severe depression twice in my life and I’ve been able to release myself from it and move passed it. I can try to describe to you what I did as best I can, but this has just been the right path for me. It may very well be different for you.
For me, the key wasn’t turning every negative thought into a positive. It was more about focusing my thoughts so that I don’t end up with having useless clutter roaming around in my brain. Whenever a negative thought would arise, I would stop and question it. “Where’d that come from?” “Do I really gain anything by thinking this?” “Is it something I can do something about?”. If I find myself unable to drop the thought, I’ll then try to find it’s root. The “why?” to the problem. Sometimes it leads to bigger problems where the original thought was just the tip of the iceberg.
Once you uncover the iceberg and see it for what it is, you come upon a life changing realization. Once you can name your demon, you gain power over it. At this crucial point comes a decision. A choice. That choice will need to be integrated into your life so that this downward spiral doesn’t form again.
In summary, what I can say about depression is this. It’s a series of bad habits that you’ve formed in your mind and life that keep leading you down the same path. Anxiety is the inability to cope. But anxiety is also a whole other demon and stems from fear. It requires a whole other set of tools (which I’ll cover in later articles).
It can take a very long time to discard the underlying problems to negative thoughts, but the alternative to me just seems like a waste. Doing nothing. Anyone suffering from depression and\or anxiety knows how terrible a situation it is and if they could change it, they would in an instant. But, initially, what you’re doing is undoing a life that brought you to this state so that you can reconfigure it to a point where living as you isn’t as much of a problem. To let every day become better, not worse.
NLP Links:
How to eliminate unwanted thoughts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f81dxIXADfc
Tony Robbins Ted Talks (why we do what we do): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpc-t-Uwv1I
NLP Pattern Interrupt : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV6wkc3EDFc
Life Lessons by Brody Mors 