What Are The Steps Of Positive Thinking?

Becoming a positive thinker is easy when you know the steps of positive thinking...

...and of course, you also apply them!

To benefit from positive thinking you need to be able to replace your negative thoughts with positive ones.

How do you do that?

Follow these steps of positive thinking:

Be aware of your thoughts. Choose a quiet spot to just sit and observe what goes on in your mind. Don't engage with any thought; just watch how your mind wanders. Meditation helps to do this.
Most people are over-identified with their thoughts and as a consequence they suffer. Be aware of your thoughts. Realize that your mind is not you.

Realize your negative thoughts.You may need a bit of soul-searching, as some of our negative thoughts are really deep beliefs about life.
Negative thoughts trigger negative emotions. A negative emotion (fear, jealousy, worry, anger, and many more) points at something going on that doesn't match with what you actually want or are.

Most people often just react to the negative emotions. You can take your negative emotions as indicators that you are maintaining negative thoughts.

Don't be at the mercy of your emotions; rather use them to know yourself better and understand which thoughts and beliefs cause your negative emotions and why.

Change your negative thoughts for positive ones. You can only think of one thing at a time, so if you think about something positive, there is no room for negativity.

Acknowledge the existence of the negative thought. Replace it for a positive one.

For example, if you find yourself worrying about money and bills to pay, you could instead think that you always have all the money you need at any point, or you could feel grateful that you have money to spend.

This example is simple though. If you wanted to dig deeper, you could still think about what is worrying you, but in a way that is positive about it and made you feel good. Having a positive attitude is seeing the glass half full.

You can always be supportive of yourself and take the necessary steps of positive thinking by repeating these positive self statements. There are also other good positive thinking programs that can help you become a more positive person.

Don't carry the world upon your shoulders

There are times that it does not seem so easy to get rid of negative thoughts, especially if you think you have a large problem.


Notice that I say "seem" because thinking positive is ultimately a matter of choice, and it is always possible.

When we feel down our mind just tricks us to think that it is much more difficult than it actually is.

We need to acknowledge when we feel overwhelmed. If the circumstances are just "too much", let them be for a while and focus on living in the present you are in.

Come back to your issues when you are ready to deal with them.

From that point on, the power is yours to follow these steps of positive thinking and choose something positive to focus on. You may use these quotes for positive thinking to inspire you or take up on one of these positive thinking activities.

Beware though...

If your negative emotions repeat themselves frequently and show a pattern, you may be keeping an old belief that does not match with what you now want.

In this case, thinking about something different and positive will not help you in the long run: the negative emotion will come back.

These steps of positive thinking will help you in the moment, but it is better to deal with the actual ingrained belief and stop having negative emotions altogether.

You may like to explore why you keep a belief that makes you feel bad. Wouldn't it make sense to change it for a belief that makes you feel good?

Talking about beliefs, Norman Vincent Peale combined positive thinking and Christianity in his famous book "The power of positive thinking". You may like to check this out if you are a Christian.

Summing up the steps of positive thinking:

Be aware of having thoughts
Use your negative emotions as indicators that you are having negative thoughts
Replace your negative thoughts for positive ones