9 Subconscious-Altering Methods That Can Help You Overcome Negative Thoughts

If there’s one thing we can bet on in life, it is that we will think negative thoughts and feel negative emotions at times.

It’s part of the human condition. Sad thoughts lead to feeling sad, angry thoughts lead to feeling anger, and so on. Of course, we can think positive thoughts and feel positive emotions too. It’s just that some people get stuck more on the negative side and aren’t sure how to get unstuck.

We come here as spirits with an emotional guidance system. Our thoughts influence our beliefs and our beliefs influence our behavior.  

How Do You Feel?

• How do you feel about life in general? 
• Do you think you have a predominantly positive or negative attitude toward life?
• How about yourself?
• Do you feel good about your physical appearance, personality, achievements?  

Many people are not thrilled with themselves in one way, shape, or form. They might not be completely miserable, but oftentimes there are character flaws they wish did not exist. For example, someone might tell one lie that triggers another lie and another one until they become quite the liar. 

Or perhaps someone has low self-esteem because they believe they are boring. So, they isolate and live a lonely life. Furthermore, and this one is quite common, someone may believe that they are unworthy, so they keep sabotaging their relationships.  

For positive change to occur or to let go of negative thoughts and emotions, it is essential to get to the underlying beliefs that lie in the subconscious side of the psyche.

The Psyche

Your mind, or psyche, is made up of two parts: 

• The conscious
• The subconscious (or unconscious, as some refer to it)

When you go about your day, you might think that your conscious mind is running the show, but scientists say that your subconscious mind runs the show about 90 to 95% of the time. 

What this means is that your past experiences, memories, thoughts, and beliefs are influencing what you think, say, and do each day whether you realize it or not. 

It helps me to think of my psyche like an iceberg.

The small part sticking out of the water is my conscious mind and the larger part submerged under water is my unconscious mind.

You can also think of your subconscious as a video. It plays over and over and the information on it is mainly from what you heard, experienced, and learned your first six or seven years of life. 

On top of that, other memories and events since then have contributed to the voice on that video.

When you are living mindfully in the present, that old video is playing and influencing your life. This is why many people continue years and years in negative cycles such as depression, anxiety, bad relationships, bad temper, intense emotional triggers, etc. 

It is important to realize this, because if you want to see real and lasting change in your life, you must understand how to change the tape that is playing in your subconscious.

You must learn how to eject that video and put a new one on that plays more positive thoughts and beliefs. Changing negative emotions comes from changing negative beliefs, and this can be done by targeting the subconscious.

Changing Subconscious Beliefs

How do you do change subconscious beliefs? 

There are various men and women who have come to our rescue and have created transformational methods that aim to modify the brain at the subconscious level. Various people have found success in each method. 

Keep in mind that what works for one might not work for another, as each individual is different. You can also combine methods. I’ve used most of the following methods and have benefited in one way or another from each one.

Here is a brief overview of some of the most common methods of subconscious modification that can help you. Feel free to do more research and try what you feel resonates with you. 

1. Sedona Method and Release Technique

The Sedona Method focuses on feeling an unwanted emotion, sitting with it momentarily, and then letting it go.

2. Affirmations

Affirmations involve conscious repetition of positive phrases about ourselves, which in time sink into our subconscious mind. 

3. Guided meditations / hypnosis

Meditation can help us quiet the thoughts that tend to run around in the mind. Using hypnosis, we can target those thoughts that aren’t serving us and changing them into more positive ones or simply letting them go.

How to Master Meditation: The Art of Mindfulness

4. Regular Meditations

Practicing mindfulness and meditation can help us better understand ourselves and become more centered, calm, and blissful.

5. The Work

Byron Katie’s method, known as “the work,” helps us go within to do some inner inquiry as to what’s causing the negative thoughts or emotions. She’s big on meditation, journaling, and making a firm commitment to actually “do the work”.   

6. Silva Method

The Silva Method is Jose Silva’s approach to change based on Alpha and Theta meditations, visualization, and more. 

7. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

The Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT, involves emotional release techniques based upon tapping certain meridian points on the body and speaking to the subconscious. 

8. The Presence Process

The Presence Process focuses on releasing emotional burdens from childhood, so you can live more fully in the present. It helps us, “rescue and renew the unhappy child within us.”  

9. Shadow Work

The well-known psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung created what we know today as “shadow work” to help one dive into the dark side of the psyche, or shadow, to illuminate trapped thoughts or emotions that need healed and integrated.

Shadow work journals have been popular in recent years to help you do inner inquiry to discover and heal shadows. 

Which Method Will Resonate With You?

Remember, these methods can be used on their own, but also combined in different ways for a greater impact.

Some of the methods complement each other quite naturally. For example, you can use meditation as a means to discover deep, buried emotions and then use the Release Technique to process and let the emotions go.  

There is hope for everyone who struggles with negative emotions. 

It does take some knowledge, effort, and time, but the effort is well worth it when you begin to get some breakthroughs. We were not meant to be a slave to negative emotions, so begin to delve into these methods and give them a try.

If you find you still need help, there are many wonderful therapists that can help you change subconscious thoughts and/or beliefs that are holding you back.

Editor's note: This article was originally published Feb 28, 2022 and has been updated to improve reader experience.

Photo by Jessica Ruscello on Unsplash