Oh, One More Thing About Magic Thoughts

Yes, one more thing about Magic Thoughts. There are also Negative Magic Thoughts. These are thoughts that can be counted on to put you in a funk, depression, panic attack or rage. You don't like them, but they are in the Library of Negative Magic Thoughts and they show up more times than not just when you don't need them. In other words, they can be INTRUSIVE. These thoughts have no concern for your personal boundaries. They rush in because.....well, because they want to. At least that is the way it seems.

There is a way of dealing with these intrusions, these most Negative Magic Thoughts. When I was doing my doctoral training, one of my professors asked us to close our eyes and see if we could conger up an image of a white Polar Bear. After a period of time our small group seemed to have an image of a white Polar Bear firmly fixed in our minds. Then, the professor said, Alright since you have the image fixed in your imagination, let me ask you now to stop thinking about this white Polar Bear for a period of four minutes. He started looking at his watch as if to keep the time.

We squirmed and shuffled and generally went crazy trying not to think of a white Polar Bear. It was quite funny, actually. There were a few of my student colleagues who claimed to have been able to do it. However, the more truthful students admitted they were frustrated with the trial. The professor then lectured some on Thought Stopping Techniques. You may want to google thought stopping techniques. I am not going to suggest you use these techniques because our most recent research shows that when you use Thought Stopping, you are not actually helping yourself in the long run. You are thought delaying, not thought stopping. In other words, these thoughts are not dealt with and changed, they are simply suppressed.

I would suggest that you take action ON the thoughts you do not want, the magic negative thoughts. Try these steps:

1. Identify the thought or thoughts that you do not like and want.

2. Write these thoughts down. There is also some magic between pen and paper. When you
write things down, you will note something good happens (to one degree or another).

3. Make a decision to change those thoughts, rather than simply stopping them.

4. Use your critical thinking abilities (rationalization, logic, calculation and other thinking
skills) to take the negative magic thoughts through a change process. One small bit of data
can make a huge difference in the ultimate message of a thought. Use different words.
Argue with the thoughts. Play the role of an attorney pressing the point, questioning this
and that and everything in-between. Don't stop the thought, kill it! With change.

5. Write the new thoughts down in as much detail as possible. Read them out loud (if possible).
Go over them like an actress going over her lines.

6. When the intrusive thoughts try to "intrude" again (if they do), attack with the new thoughts.
Even if the new thoughts that you have committed to paper, have to be "carried around" with
you for a while.

Remember this simple idea: Your thoughts control your emotional temperature and your council on behavior. You thinking is everything and when you micromanage your thoughts (at least in the beginning, until you get really good a thought managing), you give yourself the feelings and behaviors that you really desire. The magic negative thoughts are as powerful as the magic positive thoughts. They have to be dealt with, managed and eliminated through Thought Elimination/Change rather than Thought Stopping/Suppression.

The Language of Thinking