Three Ways to Kick Negative Thoughts to the Curb

How to retrain your brain to counteract negative thoughts

1. Identify the negative thoughts.

Yes, this is part of the process. When you start having negative thoughts, they leave you feeling tired, heavy, and blah. You interpret how you're feeling physically as indicators that your workout is going poorly. You feel a little bit worse. Your negative thoughts are now screaming at you to stop or ease off the gas just a little. Your workout is tanked.

We tend to be aware of our negative thoughts only once they are loud and prominent. I'm challenging you to notice them sooner. Notice the quiet voice in the back of your head, starting to plant the seed of doubt. Notice it and squash it before it gets any stronger.

2. Redirect your attention away from your thoughts.

If your thoughts are not helping you, why would you keep paying attention to them? Often, I see athletes wanting to jump from noticing their negative thoughts to replacing them with something more useful. This isn't the worst strategy, but it can be challenging. 

By shifting your attention, to something more neutral and process-driven, like your breath, you allow your brain to release negative thoughts and emotions. It is significantly easier to create a positive thought when your emotions are under control.

3. Last but not least, create a more useful thought.

Call it positive, helpful, productive--it doesn't matter. What matters is that the thought is useful for you at that moment. 

A helpful hint here, it will be easier to create a useful thought if you know what type of thinking will be sufficient for you. By this, I mean, you have to figure out where you want your attention to go. This is often discovered through trial and error, so don't be afraid to try out some different thoughts during training and see what happens. After all, that is what is training is for, right?