Feeling stressed? Searching for some stress relief activities? Not achieving what you want in life? Maybe ants have taken over!
I’m sure you keep a clean house, but I suspect you have a few of these ants. These little demons are after more than crumbs; left unchecked, they’ll steal your dreams!
These ANTs (short for Automatic Negative Thoughts) are the little voices in your head that give you a million reasons why you can’t achieve your goals, and why you probably shouldn’t even try.
You know the little voice I mean. The one that says, “I can’t go back to school, I’m too old,” or “I can’t leave this job, I’ll never find another one,” or “I can’t do this thing (you fill in the blank) because I’m not talented enough.”
They sound familiar because you’ve heard them a million times. Because of that familiarity you may accept them as fact. But though they may reflect your current beliefs about yourself, they are not your truth.
The truth is you are a powerful, unlimited being. What you can be, do and have is limited only by the beliefs you hold.
A belief is just a thought you keep thinking, so why not think another thought that DOES serve you, and keep thinking it until you believe it?
Pay close attention to your thoughts, and just notice how often you think things that don’t serve you. Then, break out the Raid!
One of the best stress relief activities you can do is, whenever you notice having a negative thought imagine a stop sign and mentally say “Stop!”. Then deliberately choose a thought that does serve you. Pump yourself up, like you would a good friend.
Do this consistently, and these new improved thoughts will become as habitual as the Automatic Negative Thoughts were. Then, instead of seeing reasons why you can’t do something, all you’ll see is the world of potentiality out there waiting for you. Happy mental house cleaning!
I love this article Alexandria. I developed a life skills training for my teen/young adult clients in foster care around exterminating the ANTS based on Dr. Daniel Amen’s workshop.
It’s amazing when we pay attention to them, to find how many ANTS there are rattling around in our brains. We can never have enough reminders that we need to pay attention and replace them with positive thoughts.
Alexandria, I’ve nominated you for the Liebster Award. To accept you need to go to follow this link http://julianeiman.com/the-liebster-award/ read the rules, copy the questions I have for my nominees and snag the award graphic you like.
Hi Julia! Not familiar with Dr. Amen’s work, but it’s true that this is something we really need to continue to address them and THINK POSITIVE!
Thanks for the nomination, going to go look into that now!
A good reminder, Alexandria. I like the stop sign suggestion. That is a good concrete reminder to STOP!
Thanks Amy – it really resonates with me too! It’s actually a hypnosis technique that was taught to me – I think equally important is to reframe the negative thought with a positive one!