Often times people do not know the cause of their anger. They just know that they "feel" angry, but they cannot pinpoint why or the cause of their anger. Negative thinking can be the root of your anger or at least get the angry feelings started. We all know that we should think more positively and avoid negativity........ but how??!!!
An easy to learn technique is "thought stopping." Negative thinking can be stopped by teaching yourself to stop negative or fearful thoughts.
Thought stopping requires that you pay attention to your thoughts and catch them at a relatively low threshold. In other words, if you catch your negative thoughts when they are first starting it will be much more easy to rope them in than if you wait until you are ready to explode.
Every time you have an unwanted thought; stop it immediately and substitute a positive thought. You can use a favorite phrase to stop yourself from repeating negative thoughts or a lot of people simply say STOP to themselves to shift out of the negative thoughts. The minute you become aware of an undesireable thought yell STOP IT to yourself. Take a deep breath and think of a positive replacement.
Does this all sound too simple to be true? Maybe, but it really works. You can learn to control your mind and train negative thoughts to stay away. Thought stopping is a very powerful procedure developed by cognitive behavioral therapists. It takes time to first learn to pay attention to yourself and then stop your negative thoughts, but it is very necessary to break the negativity cycle.
Don't think your negative thoughts will disappear the first time you try this procedure. You have to be persistent, pay attention to yourself and practice, practice, practice. At AngerManagementOnline.com we teach negative thought stopping in all of our anger management programs.
