The final step: “The Change.” (part 4)

How to stop negative thinking patterns – The final step: “The Change.” (part 4)

Congratulations if you’ve read this far, 

Only some people have completely read the first three posts about finance, love, or health, and I can only congratulate you. Additionally, you deserve another round of applause if you decide to use what you have learned. 

Like my client who overcame his blockage, you too can take the next step, learn how to stop negative thinking patterns, and make the change in one of the three areas: financial, love, or health.

Just as you sit back and read all this valuable information on your phone or computer, it will be just as easy to implement this method.

Let me tell you what this is all about. Let’s say you’re at the financial level, just an employee, and want to become a freelancer.

You’ve identified certain limiting beliefs and selected them. Now, for those beliefs, ask yourself these questions:

• What do I believe about … ?
• How do I know it’s true?
• Can I be wrong about what I think about … ?
• If I know … from … , where does he know from? Can’t he be wrong too?

What is good about these beliefs is that we can change them anytime because they don’t exist in reality. They’re just rules we operate by, installed at some point in our thinking. With these four questions, you know a reliable method for how to stop negative thinking patterns.

You should know that there are two types of beliefs – conscious and subconscious. This method aims to make some light and make you understand that your subconscious beliefs cause your blockages. Then, once you have become aware of them, you replace them with some productive beliefs.

As Carl Gustav Jung says, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.”

Let me tell you how to stop negative thinking patterns and how your beliefs, the rules you operate by, are formed:

1. By repetition: the moment we repeat a particular activity or way of thinking, our subconscious will pick up that rule as productive.  
2. When an authority expresses it: parents, relatives, role models, doctors, priests, politicians, etc. For example, in a toothpaste commercial: don’t you notice that you tend to believe the recommendation from a person with a white coat? By the way, in TV commercials, 99% of the characters are actors with no medical expertise. Why should you believe that?
3. When we have an experience that generates strong emotions. That’s how fear of the unknown usually sets in, and the comfort zone strengthens. For example, if you’ve been in a bad relationship, you assume all possible partners are the same. If you fall off your bike once, you won’t be able to ride a bicycle for the rest of your life. 

Interesting, isn’t it?

Now that you’ve identified your limiting beliefs, the next step is to change your thinking, and that’s much easier than you think.

Let’s go back to the example above, the one about finances. Financially, you are at the employee level and want to make the transition to the freelance level.

You have just challenged your limiting beliefs with the questions above. Now you will replace them with productive ones. Which one exactly, you might ask?

Well, let me tell you: imagine a freelancer you admire. What does he think about the work he does? What does he think of his products? What does he think of his clients? What does he think about the good his products or services do for the world around him?

Take a few moments and write these beliefs down on paper. Close your eyes and imagine that you are that freelancer, seeing everything he sees, hearing everything he hears, feeling everything he feels. 

Now repeat the beliefs you just wrote. Do you feel how your inner state change?

You need only one week to do this visualization to change your thinking, 5 minutes each day. The results will amaze even you. 

In fact, in the end, I confess that between you and the life you want are only your beliefs. I didn’t say earlier because you still needed to get all the information.

If you want to make a change in love or health, exercise is the same. 

1. Identify the limiting beliefs you have in that particular life domain.
2. You ask yourself clarifying questions to move them from the subconscious to the conscious and to understand that they don’t exist in reality.
3. You look for someone you admire already on the next level.
4. You think about what she thinks on that level.
5. Make a list of productive beliefs.
6. You imagine you are on the next level and tell yourself those new beliefs, for a week, for at least 5 minutes a day.
7. You begin to reap the rewards of installing the new way of thinking.
8. Enjoy your new life. Congratulations.

Just as a computer or a phone needs an update from time to time, so does your mind and your way of thinking. 

Why wait for others to program you with what they want when you can take control? Why not transform your mindset with what is helpful for you with the help of neurolinguistic programming?

Good luck, and I look forward to hearing about your successes.

If you want to learn more about how to stop negative thinking patterns, I’ll tell you that understanding and changing beliefs is part of the NLP Practitioner course held in English in Munich / München. There, the concept of belief change is explained and rehearsed for one whole weekend, with numerous practical examples, to understand when you can use it most efficiently.

Additionally, if you’re interested in how the mind works, NLP neuro-linguistic programming, Coaching or communication, drop me a line, and I’ll tell you more. Also, if you want to do a private coaching session in nature, feel free to read about my other project where you become one with the mountains, here!