Q. 5 What can I do to change my negative thought patterns?

If you suffer from negative thoughts, you need to know that they are addictive, in a similar way to drugs. That would certainly explain why you keep going back to them.

When you observe and dissect the anatomy of negative thinking, you will see the similarities with chemical and other dependencies: you repeat the thoughts even though you know they will bring you down, you cling to their familiarity in spite of the pain, and you find it difficult to let them go. These are sure traits of addiction!

Depression occurs when brain chemistry is altered for a wide variety of reasons, resulting in negative thoughts and low moods. There have been volumes written on beating depression through diet, exercise, and a plethora of chemical and non-chemical remedies that help. Those all have their place and the drugs and herbs certainly do work for many.

However, a really powerful complement to that is for you to reach within to your inner well of infinite wisdom and knowledge, which we all carry within us, and asking for healing. Yes, a prayer. But it’s not a prayer in the traditional sense. It’s a command to the power that already resides within you: your own healing energy.

Some of us are already in touch with that power. For others, it seems implausible, or highly unlikely. If that’s the case for you, then take a leap of faith. Imagine what it would be like to have a healing energy that resides within your body and your soul. Imagine that it will respond to your command when you open up to it and ask for its help. Just imagine. You don’t have anything to lose except the dark thoughts that are getting in the way of your well-being and happiness.

Find a still moment, preferably at the beginning of your day, quiet your mind and say to yourself, aloud or in your mind, words in the following vein:

‘Great Inner Spirit, I call upon you now to heal me. Refresh my thoughts and replenish my tired mind. Clear the way for fresh new ideas. Expand my mind beyond my habitual thinking and make it new again. I also call upon every cell, every particle in my body, and in my entire being to receive this healing fully. By the power of God/All That Is/Great Spirit, so be it’.

And as you do that daily, look at every now moment like a newborn, filled with unfulfilled potential and possibilities. At every turn, dump the mental clutter that comes up, through the support of your inner healing. This will open the way for new, creative, active thoughts and fresh, new perspectives. And you can apply this form of prayer to whatever you want help with.

© khaled bazzi 2004.