Declutter your mind

Do we have a clutter in our minds? Yes we do. Clutter is any kind of harmful thought.

Can a thought be harmful?

Any thought that decreases your capabilities to adapt to reality is harmful. "I am going to lose my job because of crisis in IT sector." could be an example of harmful thought if that paralyzes you or prevents you from acting. Note that same thought might be inspirational for someone. It is not information that is harmful, emotions deep inside (fear, hate, jealousy, anger, shame ...) are the one that could prevent you fPublish Postrom adapting.

How to find your harmful thoughts?

You could make an inventory of thoughts throughout the day. Of course, you cannot note every thought, but you could notice some thought that are frequent. Even one thought is good for start. Ask yourself what does that thought mean? Does it make you angry, sad, ashamed, nervous, furious, frightened, disgusted? If it does than that thought is probably harmful.

Examples could be:

• "I don't want to make a public speech, everybody will laugh at me".
• "I am a bad student, I cannot go to the university".
• "I am fat and nobody likes me".
  

What you could do with those harmful thoughts?

For each negative thought create a positive thought. Then whenever you notice that you have that negative thought replace it with the positive one. It is usually the best if you could imagine a picture that represent a positive thought. For example you could imagine a picture (actually movie) of you finishing your speech, and the audience tapping your shoulder saying how good speech that was.

By replacing negative with positive thoughts, you will not be free from negative emotions. They will occur from time to time. For example sadness is natural if something bad happens. But is not natural if it stops you from action that is necessary to adapt to a new situation ("I am sad so I cannot meet anybody right now").