One of the biggest hurdles in life design is releasing negative thoughts. Negative thoughts feel bad, attract more negativity into your life, and sometimes seem too powerful to overcome. All you have to do to feel good and manifest good-feeling experiences is let go of your negative thoughts. But how??

One method is to replace your negative thoughts with positive thoughts. But if you feel bad, positive thoughts can sound cheesy or unbelievable. Another method is to repeat a single mantra over and over to stop the flow of negativity. This can be quite effective, but sometimes words just don't hold the power you need.

My favorite method is to use a visual mantra, or an image I can hold steady in my mind. Negative thoughts feel like my guts rising to my head, twisting around a solid beam in my brain. It's like tangled seaweed or gripping octopus legs or a trapped air puppet. It literally feels gut-wrenching to think negative thoughts. The beam turns, pulling the tentacles tighter and tighter.

When I want to release my negative thoughts, I pull up that visual and picture the tentacles releasing, sinking back into my middle where they belong. My head clears, and the beam spins freely, giving me a feeling of blissful, thought-free knowing. My guts stop clenching, and the thoughts are gone. I picture this scene over and over and over, as long as I need to feel better.

I now know enough from life experience to understand that no negative thought is worth holding onto. Not a single worry, fear, or concern is worth the bad feeling. So I can use my visual mantra with any negative thought, and I remember to pull up the scene a lot more easily than a mantra of words.

What do negative thoughts look like to you? Can you envision releasing them? Does a visual mantra help you let go?

You can now buy the Quiet Your Mind and Follow Your Emotions poster featuring the image at the top!