The 25 best helpful thoughts to stop negative thinking

Do you notice yourself thinking negatively about yourself? Is that actually quite exhausting and holding you back from what you want to achieve? With these 25 helpful thoughts take a first step toward addressing that. So you can be exactly who you are and show what you have to offer.

What are helpful thoughts?

Helpful thoughts are thoughts that make you feel comfortable or that help and support you to do things. Helpful thoughts also help you address your stress and overload. They strongly support you in achieving a particular goal. So your helpful thoughts can make it easy for you to achieve your goal.

So much for the positive news 🙂

Because you can also suffer from negative or blocking thoughts. You probably started reading this blog because you notice to yourself that you are being held back somewhat by those negative thoughts in your head. You may even be completely fed up with it.

Causes of negative thinking

Everyone suffers from negative thinking from time to time. Not bad in itself but when it becomes prevalent it can hinder you in your daily life. The problem with negative thoughts is that they keep haunting your mind. Do you ever ask yourself if those negative thoughts are true?

Probably not.

Chances are you’re more likely to do the opposite: the more often you have the thoughts, the more you start believing in them. Thus, you pay more attention to evidence in your environment that shows that your negative thoughts are true.

The 5 most common negative thoughts are:

1. “I have to ….” do all kinds of things

By saying “I have to or must do everything well” or “I have always to be nice,” you set demands and expectations on yourself that you rationally know, of course, that you cannot actually meet. You run the risk of overstepping your own boundaries in doing so. For example, this can cause you to feel tired often.

2. You are very good at thinking in black and white

“They never understand me” or “I never succeed” are examples of black-and-white thinking. If you often say that to yourself, you only think in extremes. If you say that to yourself then it is difficult to do anything or get moving because you assume that the situation will never change. You think you can’t do anything about it.

3. Can you read minds?

In mind reading, you are convinced that you know what another person is thinking. Actually, the facts are that you don’t know that at all. Even you cannot see into someone’s mind. Some examples? “He probably thinks I’m really stupid” or “If I say that, they probably think I’m not a professional.” You are more or less guided by what other people think of you.

If you dare to acknowledge that the thoughts are only in your head you have already taken the first step. Perhaps a little ‘do-not-fill-in-for-another’ attitude might help you.

article continues after image

4. Your emotional feelings are always right

If you say to yourself “I’m afraid I can’t do it” and you allow yourself to be guided by this (emotional) reasoning, you are assuming that your feelings are correct as a predictor of the future. Unfortunately, these emotions are misleading.

Feelings are good, ok, worth expressing and tell something about how you are experiencing the situation. It is not immediately a realistic expectation for your future. It is not proof of what will happen in reality.

5. You can predict the future

“I’m sure it won’t work out tomorrow.” With such a statement you predict the future. Ofcourse I hold you in high regard but I don’t know many people who can accurately predict the future exactly Such a thought makes you slam shut and prevents any possibility of doing anything about it. Better, of course, to turn such a negative thought into a helpful one.

What about you?

What negative thoughts play a leading role in your life? And could you turn it into a helping thought? Get inspired by the ideas below.

The 25 best helping thoughts

You can use helping thoughts in many ways. For example, if you find yourself uncomfortable you can encourage and motivate yourself with these positive thoughts. You can also use the phrases when you have to do something important and you don’t feel quite sure. With the phrases, you’re feeling more good about yourself.

Or simply, when you wake up and want to to boost your self-confidence. Read the thoughts all the way through first and then choose, for example, 5 helping thoughts that really fit you at this moment.

Then choose the helping thought that best suits you that day, modify it for your situation if necessary, and write down that particular helping thought. (For example, you can use your phone for this) If you read that specific helping thought regularly that day, you will find that you start to feel better.

1. I’m just brave and go full force for what I want and care about.
2. I am who I am and I am happy with that. Your approval is nice, but not necessary for me.
3. The bumps in the road disappear like snow before the sun. Because of my own development, I look at problems differently.
4. I am grateful for the people around me and express this in a simple way by saying “thank you.”
5. I see and appreciate the little things that help me through the day.
6. I possess the qualities, skills and abilities to be extremely successful.
7. I am happy with myself and am therefore an extremely satisfied person.
8. I am capable of so much more. The best is yet to come. I can grow and develop myself.
9. I myself am the master builder of my life. I am happy to make the design about that. I choose to build on the bedrock of my life.
10. I trust my inner wisdom and believe in myself.
11. I am a powerful person, strong and positive.
12. Today, I regularly seek out my optimistic energy. I deal with that consciously and prioritize how I feel.
13. Through my new, different positive thoughts, I give myself the opportunity to develop.
14. OK, I’m in an awkward phase right now, but I know in my heart that this will pass. I can overcome this difficult phase step by step.
15. I am a courageous person and go full throttle for what I want and care about.
16. Today I scoop a wealth of love, health, happiness and success onto my plate and everyone gets to eat with me.
17. I am strong. When things weren’t going my way, I got out. I have overcome adversity and disappointment. I learned from it and grew.
18. I have a talent, I know what it is and I continue to develop that with pleasure.
19. My business is evolving. There is a bright prospect on the horizon.
20. Many people look at me and see my added value. It becomes larger when I choose to do my own (personal) development.
21. Here I am! Proud of how I developed myself.
22. I am at a place in my life where peace and tranquility is a priority.
23. I notice that I am moving forward. I have more inner strength than people around me think. I believe and know in my heart that beautiful things await me.
24. I count my blessings, 1 by 1. Every day and I enjoy that.
25. I am demonstrably a source of success. If I like something, it happens. What I touch turns into a positive outcome.

Is there anything more I can do?

How wonderful that you made the effort to delve into helpful thoughts that support you in your personal development. Of course it is a small step, but an important step to break a pattern in your life. Does it taste like more and would you like to develop more confidence on this?