How do I rid myself of a negative mindset?

Typically, a negative mindset is the result of our core beliefs.  Core beliefs are developed in childhood and usually during stressful situations.  It is our core beliefs that shape our view of the world.  For example, if your core belief is that the world is unsafe, you will start to believe that you are in danger even in situations that appear safe to most people.  Think of it like a tree, if your core belief is the trunk, and that core belief is negative, then all of the branches of that three will be negative (your thoughts).  So the branches will sprout thoughts like "I'm in danger", "I cannot trust anyone", or "I'm not safe".  It is important to remember that our thoughts directly correlate to how we feel.  That means if the thoughts are negative, then our feelings are negative. 

In order to get rid of the negative thoughts, you have to first identify the core belief that is driving the thought and then ask two very important questions:

1. Is this thought accurate?  Often times the negative thought that drives our negative emotions is an inaccurate thought.  For example, if I think "I cannot trust anyone", that would be an inaccurate thought because of course I can trust someone.  

2. Is this thought helpful?  Much like inaccurate thinking many of the negative thoughts that drive our negative emotions are unhelpful.  For example, if I think "I'm going to die".  Well, the reality is we're all going to die at some point, but if I'm healthy then always thinking that I'm going to die is unhelpful.

So, if the thoughts are inaccurate or unhelpful ways of thinking, then we change the thoughts to more accurate or more helpful ways of thinking.  This sounds easy, but the reality is, it's a difficult task to do.  More importantly, if you have conditioned your brain to believe inaccurate and unhelpful thoughts, then when you start telling yourself accurate and helpful thoughts, your brain will struggle to believe them, at first.  So remember, change takes dedicated practice.  You will need to practice telling yourself accurate helpful information in order to rid yourself of a negative mindset.