*Thoughts that go through your mind will always be there

*You can’t stop your thoughts

*You don’t need to stop the thoughts – you just need to choose which thoughts you should pay attention to, and which thoughts you should let drift on past…

*The easiest way to change the way you think is to remember one very important thing…

*Remember one important thing…

*Some of your thoughts may be based on fact – these are not the kind of thoughts we’re looking at here. Thought’s like “I really should do my homework” or “I should tell my Mum I appreciate her” are thoughts worth considering as being “facts”

*But - many of the thoughts that run through your head are definitely NOT based on fact

*– many of your thoughts are assumptions / opinions / even other-people’s opinions.

*The trick is to be real and honest with yourself and make a point of figuring-out which thoughts are “negative” and which thoughts are “positive”.

You will have negative thoughts…

These thoughts make you feel sad, jealous, angry, and worthless

You will have positive thoughts…

These thoughts make you feel happy, love, calm and safe

*You are allowed to think both kinds of thoughts… both positive and negative. You can’t stop any of your thoughts and you should not even try to stop either kinds of thoughts.

*You are human! – being human means that you should be having both negative and positive thoughts

*You are also allowed to feel the feelings that your thoughts create.

*You should not “beat-yourself-up” when you have lots of negative thoughts – it’s ok to have “those days” where everything seems bad

*It is not ok to try to block-out your unpleasant thoughts.

*The trick is to be real and honest with yourself.

*You should try – as best you can – to practise 3 steps:

1.1.““Notice” Notice” the thought and, as best you can, the thought and, as best you can,

describe it to yourself (or… you could write it describe it to yourself (or… you could write it

down)down)

2.2.DecideDecide whether this thought is whether this thought is worth-thinking-worth-thinking-

aboutabout or… is it just another one of your or… is it just another one of your

repeated thoughtsrepeated thoughts

3.3.As As best you can, best you can, letlet the thought drift away. the thought drift away.

*Your thoughts will keep coming back – but – eventually… if

you make a real effort to practise the 3 steps… you will only

“dwell” on the thoughts that you know are worth thinking

about

*Remember, you can’t stop your thoughts – but you can

learn to deal with them – on your terms!

*The more you try to “stop” destructive thoughts – the

more often they’ll keep hassling you!

*Why don’t you try – as best you can – practise 3 steps:

*““Notice” Notice” the thought and, as best you can, the thought and, as best you can,

describe it to yourself (or… you could write it describe it to yourself (or… you could write it

down)down)

*DecideDecide whether this thought is whether this thought is worth-thinking-worth-thinking-

about…about… or is it just another one of your or is it just another one of your

repeated thoughtsrepeated thoughts

*As As best you can, best you can, allow the thought to drift allow the thought to drift

away. away.

*You send an important txt msg to one of your best friends. Your friend always replies quickly to all of your txt msgs.

*One hour goes by…

*3 hours go by…

*A whole day goes by…

Still no reply from your friend.

This isn’t normal! What’s wrong? A whole lot of thoughts come racing though your mind. You have no idea why your friend hasn’t replied. Your thoughts keep racing around in your mind – you can’t stop them.

*The more you think about it – the worse you feel! You start getting angry. You feel let-down. You think your friend has betrayed you somehow. You must have done something terrible. It must be your fault. You must be a terrible person… that must be why your friend wont reply to you! You feel worse and worse now. You almost feel sick!

*Now… stop…

*Stop for a minute… and take a deep breath

*Look at those “thoughts”

*Look at the thoughts carefully. “Notice” those thoughts that have made you feel so bad.

*Ask yourself… “are any of those thoughts facts?”

*None of those thoughts are facts. They’re just thoughts – they can’t hurt you.

*You see the negative thoughts. You notice them. You decide that those thoughts are NOT facts – so you let those thoughts drift off.

*Soon, you get a msg from a phone number that you don’t know. It’s your friend…

“… hi… lost my mobile phone yesterday … this is my brother’s phone. Go on fb chat NOW. K. xx”

You will always have weeds that you need to deal with… and, once you get rid of one kind of weed –

another type of weed will show up! One good way to have fewer weeds – is to grow

more flowers.The more flowers you grow – the less space for the

weeds!