Hidden Corridor

Do You Suffer From Too Many ANTs?

Do you have a problem with ANTs? I’m not talking about the little critters that are hard working industrial creations, no, I’m talking about automatic negative thoughts. We all suffer from ANTs but it’s how often we have them that makes the difference not only in how we perceive the world but how efficiently we manifest our perfect life.

Before we can begin to try to control ANTs we need to be able to identify the many different ANTs our minds might just be serving up:

Over Generalization – Saying something ALWAYS happens or NEVER happens. For example “people like her only think of themselves”. Often you don’t know the person you make this accusation of personally. Or “I am always picked last”.

Filtering On Only The Negative – In any situation, even the most dire, there is a positive to be found if you just look closely enough. This is often combined with Black and White thinking (things are only good or bad) and/or Over Personalization (I’m not good enough) and/or Magnification/Minimization. For example “my career is over since I didn’t get that promotion” or “my boss thinks I’m a loser because I didn’t get the promotion when Sheila did”.

Should & Ought Thinking – Any time you say I should do something or I ought to do something it’s a very backwards way of saying that you really don’t want to do something at the moment but feel like you are not living up to someone’s expectation (your own or society’s) by not doing the action. This way of thinking is hard to change.

While there are more ANT forms these are some of the most common and if we can just work on these, we’ll be well on our way to moving forward.

So how do we work on our ANTS? First is detection and awareness of the ANT. Just by reading this article and having me identify what an ANT is will begin to empower you to discover that you have these modes of thinking. Add to that a commitment to just sit back anytime during the day when you feel uncomfortable, are a bit depressed or bored or angry will likely reveal to you, upon reflection, that you have one or more of the ANT thought types above.

Then ask yourself ‘why do I feel this way?’ and ‘what is really bugging me here?’ It’s not just that you may have gotten passed over for a promotion. It’s that you don’t feel respected. It’s that you feel you are not accepted as the person you believe you really are. It’s fear that good things will not come to you.

Then move forward to one positive thought. Maybe if your issue is that you did not get the promotion you can reflect that you boss also said that you were ‘a valuable employee’ and that with ‘a little more effort’ you can get that promotion. If he or she wasn’t clear what that effort needed to be, go back in a good mood and ask to discuss a plan to put you on the path for the promotion at the next earliest consideration point. Even if they didn’t seem that positive toward you, go have the discussion anyway. The worst thing you can discover is that they are unlikely to promote you but just could not tell you to your face that a promotion won’t happen. Even then that’s a positive opportunity for you to find a better company or boss to work for that will support you and help you grow.

What is important with ANTs is understanding what’s behind them and then working replace that negative thought with a positive one. You must find something to replace it with for maximum effectiveness.

So give this a try and see if you can quickly see a difference in your life!

One final thought. One way to start off your day with a positive theme is to watch your very own mind movie. Find out more about mind movies here.

Tags: ANTs, Law of Attraction, manifestation, Mind Movies, postive thinking strategies