Stop Negative Thoughts with 5 Uplifting Spiritual Practices
I remember a time when I found it incredibly hard to stop negative thoughts from entering my mind. It was as if my mind was hardwired to think the worst.
Even when I could muster the mental strength to think of positive possiblities, I’d often fall flat. Other times, I’d twist the storyline into one with disastrous scenarios and cruel words, even for familiar situations, such as going to work or meeting a friend.
It was as if a worry-cloud constantly loomed overhead. I wished I could eliminate it in an instant (but then I remembered it’s not that easy, and our brains are much more complicated than we like to admit).
If you relate, I’m sure you understand how frustrating and draining it can be to constantly battle negativity.
Negative thoughts and self-talk are no joke.
Many of us would benefit from banishing negative thoughts. There’s no denying that.
So, is it time to finally stop negative thoughts so you can replace them with the positivity you need to uplift every aspect of your life?
By implementing these spiritual practices that go beyond surface-level tips into your daily routine, you can find the power to stop negative thoughts more frequently and cultivate a mindset filled with positivity, resilience and inner peace.
Don’t worry, I’ve tried and tested and can advocate for each spiritual practice, giving you bite-sized advice and effective approaches to stop negative thoughts and promote spiritual growth. So, let’s get to it…
What is the meaning of spirituality?
Spirituality is a deeply personal and profound aspect of human existence. It goes beyond religious beliefs, encompassing a connection to something greater than ourselves. For example, a deity such as God, nature or the universe as a whole (the choice is yours).
At its core, spirituality is seeking meaning, purpose, and a sense of deep connection with the world around us.
In a broader sense, spirituality is cultivating a oneness with all things, especially living things and the energy of everything. It helps to nurture our values and contribute to the well-being of others and the world.
Einstein said, “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way.”
Even to this day, this theory underlines New Age practices such as The Law of Attraction which uses positive thinking and energetic work to create a better reality for oneself.
Spirituality is a personal experience not confined to any particular belief system. Instead, a belief system we create based on our own experiences and beliefs which often adapt and deepen over time.
Personally, I practice The Law of Attraction. I am also Christian. Oh… and I meditate (originating from Buddhism).
Spirituality ultimately encourages us to connect with our inner wisdom, intuition and higher consciousness. It invites us to explore the mysteries of our existence and cultivate personal and spiritual growth over a lifetime.
What are spiritual practices?
Many spiritual practices are ancient techniques passed down through generations. For example, when translating hieroglyphics, the Kemetian people (ancient Egyptians) practiced a form of spiritual meditation still practiced in some modern groups of yogis, Buddhists and the Daoist circles.
Spiritual practices have made a massive comeback in recent years due to the growing attention on mental health and wellbeing spurred by the pandemic. Also, the growing threat of global warming and recent global calamities.
Spiritual practices such as meditation, yoga, praying, nature and even art allow us to find guidance, inspiration and comfort during times of challenge and during everyday life.
What are the benefits of spiritual practices on our mindset?
Trust me, spiritual practices work wonders on our mindset. They bring more focus on the present moment and cultivate self-awareness, ultimately helping us find more peace amid the chaos.
These practices shift our perspective, making us see the world with more positivity and compassion.
They help us gain clarity, discovering our true purpose, spiritual self, and making conscious choices.
Spiritual practices also empower us to handle tough emotions and bounce back stronger. They act as a safe haven in an unpredictable world, and remind us we’re part of something greater and we have what it takes to thrive!
Why negative thoughts come in mind?
There are numerous reasons why negative thoughts come in mind throughout our day. Cognitive bias’ are one of the main culprits.
Have you ever encountered situations that trigger negative memories and their associated feelings? If so, you’ve encountered a form of cognitive bias.
Our brains have a natural tendency to focus on negative stimuli. This bias leads to negative thoughts being more memorable compared to positive thoughts, which affect our perception of current situations.
That’s why it’s not always easy to stop negative thoughts. However, with practice, we can become better apt at slowing their frequency to take away their power.
How to stop negative thoughts and promote positive ones with 5 uplifting spiritual practices
1. Cultivating mindfulness to help stop negative thoughts
Mindfulness is one of my favourite spiritual practices. Unlike meditation and prayer, mindfulness can be practised at any time.
You can find dozens of descriptions of mindfulness online. Essentially, it’s the practice of living your life presently.
What does that really mean? It’s allowing you to be you. Simple, right? I wish it was.
In a world full of worries and pressures that affect our peace of mind, we can often become anxiously lost in thought about the past and the future.
When we instead practise entwining with the present moment, things flow as they should. We act out of authenticity and the results show. Our true/spiritual self shines through.
As someone who has practised mindfulness for 7 years, here are my biggest tips to get started:
Learning to be mindful
Catch yourself thinking
- Notice when you become lost in thought and bring yourself back to the present moment by focusing on your body and surroundings.
Label thoughts:
- Take things a step further by labelling thoughts. For example, “this is me worrying”, “This is a distracting thought”, “I’m frustrated”.
- You’ll then develop the understanding and awareness that every thought is tied to a feeling or emotion often influenced by the past or a presumption about the future. Alongside intrusive thoughts such as the random lines that pop in your mind.
See thoughts as just thoughts:
- You’ll then start to realise thoughts come and go and are not all are worth acknowledging.
- The thoughts worthy of attention are productive in nature, promote healing, compassion, understanding or curiosity. The rest typically don’t need further contemplation and are often tied to negativity.
- Next, practice allowing unproductive thoughts to pass by. Many people like to use the “clouds in the sky” metaphor, but feel free to create your own metaphor. I prefer to see them as leaves in the breeze.
The more you practise increasing your awareness and acknowledgement of negative thoughts, the easier it becomes to focus on and give your best in the present. Thoughts will begin to pass by more easily and not stick in your mind like an unwanted visitor.
If you are a habitual overthinker, this takes practice. I know this all too well. But 1% improvement is better than no improvement.
And even if it takes months if not years to feel a significant positive shift to your psyche, you deserve to feel more peace. It will benefit your downtime, work time, and everything in between.
If you add breathwork into the mix, well, you’ve levelled up the practice! Breathing deep into your diaphragm helps to slow thoughts down, allowing you to notice negative thoughts better.
Deep breathing also allows thoughts to pass easier, creating a sense of time slowing down. Thereby giving you a better chance to notice unsolicited thoughts.
Furthermore, meditation is your mental playground to develop your mindfulness skill. Meditating and sitting away from distractions allows you to cultivate the non-judgemental observation needed to observe your thoughts and develop concentration and focus to promote present moment living.
2. Extended affirmations
I’m a sucker for affirmations. They have many benefits:
- When repeated, affirmations help to reframe negative or limiting beliefs
- Give a boost to confidence by reinforcing positive qualities
- Can be used as a tool to manage stress by focusing on calm and positive statements to promote relaxation
- Can help you stay motivated by affirming your commitment to a goal
Essentially, if it’s anything to do with your mindset, affirmations can encourage positivity and consistency.
You’ll notice that usual affirmations tend to be short sentences. However, you can take the mindset benefits of affirmations up a notch by extending and elaborating the message.
For example, usual affirmations:
- I am successful
- I wake up motivated
- My thoughts and feelings matter
- Good things are coming my way
Now, extended affirmations I wrote earlier this year:
Extended affirmations can be used in any area of your life that needs attention, mentally and also emotionally and even energetically.
Affirmations have a unique skill of hitting us at our core. Benefits include:
- Regularly using affirmations boosts self-esteem and self-worth, as they reinforce your positive qualities.
- Affirmations increase motivation and encouragement to pursue life goals. They can help you stay focused, determined and inspired.
- They remind you to build inner strength and overcome challenges, providing a great sense of empowerment during difficult times.
With practice and patience, the repetition of affirmations inline with your life direction can help to stop negative thoughts and promote more positive thinking.
You can write affirmations down on your phone and look at them for a mentality boost, or for weekly extended affirmations, you can follow me on social media:
3. Daily doses of gratitude
I’m sure you’ve met an avid pessimist in your life who’s main dialogue is complaints. Well, gratitude turns this mentality on its head…
Religious scriptures, spiritualist activists and scientists have raved about the benefits of gratitude throughout history.
In a paper “Why Gratitude Enhances Well-Being: What We Know, What We Need to Know”, Gratitude is described as: “…foundational to well-being and mental health throughout the lifespan. From childhood to old age, accumulating evidence documents the wide array of psychological, physical, and relational benefits associated with gratitude.”
The benefits of gratitude:
- Gratitude has shown to increase positive emotions and reduce stress and anxiety.
- Focusing on gratitude can help you develop a more positive outlook on life and human existence, encouraging more happiness, spirituality and contentment.
- Gratitude has been linked to better physical health, such as improved sleep, reduced blood pressure and a stronger immune system.
This demonstrates the powerful effects of a grateful mentality on our mental health, physical health, and life choices, as well as on our daily actions, including what we say and how we act.
Essentially, it’s harder to think negatively when grateful. Grateful thoughts can include:
- I have everything I need to make my next move in life
- I have a bed, a home, food and fresh water
- I appreciate personal connections with friends and family
- The world continues to spin and the universe grow
- I am in good health
- I wake up everyday
Gratitude is a skill that can be developed overtime. It’s never too late to start this encouraging practice and allow gratitude to spill into every area of your life.
For me, gratitude is my mental alarm clock. As soon as I wake, I run through what I’m grateful for. This sets up a more positive mindset for the day. I can then tap back into the positive and encouraging messages during the day, whether off the top of my head or from an affirmation I read earlier.
The best way to tap into what you’re grateful for in life? Think of everything you’d be sad or disappointed to lose. Everything from your family and comfy bed, to the sun and a new day.
Why not give it a go? Wake up tomorrow and remember everything you’re thankful for. Experience an uplift in your mood as you recall different aspects of your life. In turn, elevating your personal and spiritual growth.
Energy cleansing rituals to help stop negative thoughts
Thus far, practices have been PG on the spiritual scale. Now, we’re going to explore cleansing rituals for energy work.
First, we’ll explore why spirituality is tied to energy to gather a clearer picture of how and why energy cleansing is such a go-to in the spiritual community.
As mentioned briefly earlier, many believe in a subtle energy that underlies and affects our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. It’s the mind, body and spirit trio of energetic balance many strive to have and sustain.
What’s more, many believe this energy is tied to God or a higher power. For me, I believe our souls to be the strongest energetic connection we have with our Creator.
Hence, cleansing our energy is a crucial spiritual practice to allow us to encompass our best in mind, body and soul to promote spiritual healing and growth.
Let’s get into energy cleansing rituals that may very well become your go to for a wellbeing improvement:
Smudging
When I think of smudging, a meme comes to mind that goes something like this:
I smudged my house so much I’m now on the front porch.
In other words, you smudged your house so much that all negative energy left including your personal negative energy (*giggles*).
So as you can tell, smudging is known as a hands on way to deal with negative energy.
How is negative energy and negative thinking related?
Negative energy and negative thinking often reinforce each other in a feedback loop. Engaging in negative thoughts can generate and perpetuate negative energy, which in turn fuels more negative thoughts–brilliant (*face plam*).
However, this loop is so common and understandable for many due to the pressures of life.
Essentially, negative energy and negative thinking are two sides of the same coin. Thus, elevating one can lessen the other–happy days!
Right, back to smudging…
Smudging originated from Native American and Indigenous traditions. It involves the burning of herbs. Most notably, white sage.
How does smudging work?
- Clearing negative energy: It is believed the smoke created by burning sage attaches to and pulls away any negative or stagnant energy present in the space or around the person. The smoke acts as a purifier, dispersing and clearing out negative energy.
- Spiritual cleansing: Smudging is used as a spiritual ritual that connects individuals to the spiritual realm (not scary ghosts but ancestors, spirit guides and God). It’s believed that the sage carries prayers and intentions to the spiritual realm, allowing for spiritual cleansing and healing.
On a side note, one night after smudging myself, I experienced a vivid dream in which whom I believe to be a spiritual guide gave me words of encouragement. I remember this dream well to this day.
- Aromatherapy effect: the scent of burning sage is often considered calming and soothing. Breathing in the herbal smoke is believed to have a grounding and cleansing effect on the mind and emotions. Thus alleviating negative thoughts and their coinciding feelings.
It’s important to note that intentions are important when smudging. Whilst some use it to connect to the spiritual realm, others use it to create a sacred and protected space for ceremonies and meditation–creating a barrier between the physical world and spiritual realm.
Smudging is a tactical and versatile spiritual practice that’s a great stepping stone from occasional spiritual person to active spiritualist.
Energetic visualisation
This practice comes thanks to a Facebook friend of mine (I won’t mention his name). He’s an experienced energy healer from the UK who’s worked with people across the globe including myself. We connected by chance, and he’s taught me many things about spiritual living.
One of his most recommended techniques for releasing negative energy and allowing energy to flow naturally (and therefore minimising negative thoughts) is positive and negative visualisation. You can use it anywhere at any time. It’s particularly helpful in stressful and overwhelming situations.
Positive and negative energetic visualisation technique:
- Breathe deep
- Try your best to focus on yourself (but not to the point of hyperfixation)
- When breathing in, imagine blue (cool) positive signs entering your airways and your whole body through your breath
- When breathing out, imagine red (warm) negative signs leaving your body through your breath
- Repeat until your energy becomes stable and you feel more calm
Seeing as I’m a HSP (highly sensitive person) and empath, I often use this technique when I pick up on the emotions and energy of others. It enables me to center myself and refocus on my own energy, fostering more positive thinking and reducing energetic overwhelm.
If you relate, positive and negative visualisation is sure to help you protect and harness your energy.
5. Connect with nature to help stop negative thoughts
Connecting with nature in a spiritual sense is not so much tree hugging and walking barefoot, however, they can help.
There’s more to it than that…
In recent years, scientists have noted how trees are intelligent life forms. They can sense, learn, remember and react. They have vast chemical signalling and communication systems connected through their roots.
Trees and plants are much more advanced and caring than many believe. And that’s likely one of the key reasons why they have such an uplifting effect on people.
They can sense vibrations which gives rise to the theory they can feel the vibrational frequency / energy of people nearby. In turn, providing people with energetic healing (as well as a lovely top-up of fresh oxygen).
So, the next time you go for a walk in the forest, try to acknowledge the presence of trees and plants. Visualise absorbing their natural healing energy. Allow it to ground you and cleanse your energy and mind.
6. Binaural beats sound therapy
If you’ve ever been deeply touched or emotionally moved by a song, you may have already experienced the profound spiritual healing potential of music. You are also likely to experience the benefits of sound therapy.
Sound therapy is a holistic healing practice that utilises the power of sound and vibration to promote relaxation, reduce stress, and support our overall well-being. It is based on the understanding that sound and vibration have the potential to deeply impact our physical, emotional, and spiritual states.
These claims may seem far-fetched, but there’s plenty of scientific research to back them up.
Seeing as there are many forms of sound therapy, we’ll focus on just one today; binaural beats and their benefits to the mind.
What are binaural beats? They are a type of auditory illusion created by playing two slightly different frequencies in each ear. When the brain processes the two different frequencies, it perceives a rhythmic beat or pulsation within the range of the frequency difference. This beat is the binaural beat.
As the binaural beat continues playing, the brain tries to match its brainwave frequency to that of the perceived beat.
The frequency of the binaural beat corresponds to a specific brainwave state, such as alpha, beta, theta, or delta.
For example, lower frequency binaural beats (e.g. in the theta or delta range) are associated with deep relaxation, meditation, or sleep, while higher frequency beats (e.g. in the beta range) are linked to increased focus and alertness.
Binaural beats benefits for negative thoughts include:
- Relaxation and stress reduction: Binaural beats can help induce a state of relaxation, making it easier to counteract the physiological and emotional responses associated with negative thinking and stress. It becomes easier to let go of negative thoughts and cultivate more positive ones.
- Enhanced mood and emotional state: They have the potential to influence mood and emotional wellbeing by promoting the release of endorphins and reducing stress hormones. Thus, uplifting your mood and helping stop negative thinking patterns.
- Mindfulness and self-awareness: Binaural beats can be used cooperatively with meditation and mindfulness practice. By creating a calm and focused state of mind, you can become more aware of negative thoughts and consciously intervene.
I’ve personally used binaural beats many times during meditation practice. I sometimes enter a trance-like state which allows me to pick up on my thoughts easier, whilst being deeply relaxed.
Binaural beats also contribute to ‘awakening’ my inner voice/true self so I can tune into my deep-seated beliefs and hopes to help me make the best decisions in my life.
Overall, all of these spiritual practices have allowed my true self and true voice to become more pronounced over the years.
Spirituality is a choice and a skill. Once you dive into your deeper being, it can become addictive. However, unlike unhealthy addictions and habits, spiritual growth and healing is a journey that can only ever benefit your wellbeing and life.
There will be days which are hard in life (as we all know), but returning to your inner voice and soul more frequently allows you to live according to your terms with more peace, courage and acceptance, and there’s nothing more liberating!
Build a spiritual practice to help stop negative thoughts
If you want spirituality to truly transform your mindset, integrate spiritual practices into your day. Why not combine a few? For example, actively try to stay mindful throughout your day. Pick a day of the week if that seems like a realistic starting point. In addition, a few times a week, meditate for 10 minutes and gradually increase the duration of your sessions. Then, invest in good quality sage and smudge before and after someone visits your home. You get the gist!
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