Ever had a day when your mind just feels cloudy? When you just can’t make decisions? You feel irritable and detached and frankly quite down on yourself? Well you would be one of many…so my goal here is to look into the why, then the how these feelings might be eased.

It may sound incredibly simple, and forgive me for going back to basics but the mind is our most powerful tool. It gives us the ability to process positive and negative thoughts, achieve, move our bodies, create action, and most screamingly important…all our communication methods with the outside world stem from here.

Every day we can have as many as 60,000 thoughts racing through our brain, 95% of thoughts each day repeat themselves day in day out and a staggering 80% of our thoughts are negative…about ourselves, about others, about our jobs, our relationships, past experiences – really about anything! These thoughts are our subconscious mental chatter.

Can you imagine how sad and anxious anyone would feel if they succumbed to & accepted all of these thoughts? The first step to change is to be aware each day of what goes through your mind; ask yourself “are these thoughts all true”? No. The answer is that this is highly unlikely. So what can you do to change?

The beginning lies not in stopping these thoughts but developing your control over them.

The path to control is no overnight solution and easier said than done but by starting to push them out of your mind consciously and regularly you can eventually break this habit of accepting these unhelpful thoughts and letting them spiral so much that your mood is low, your mind cloudy. Instead you can create a new healthy habit by giving conscious attention and time to the positives in your life. What about all the things that will go right? Ever thought about devoting energy to these thoughts? Challenge yourself to make a note of negative thoughts and push them away when they enter your brain.

Believing your negative thoughts are your reality can be an obstacle to achieving your goals & not reaching your full potential – which we all deserve. Practice and effort can help us achieve a more positive mindset.  Knowing your mind and challenging your negative thoughts can be the first step.  Why not try it? And remember – be easy on yourself; be kind to you as you would to others.