We can all agree that our mind is something spectacular. It’s something that not even the greatest scientists together can understand.

Everything that was ever created by us was first a thought. Our mind can be the key that opens any door, however, it can be our greatest prison as well.

The thing about our mind is that it is more powerful than we can even imagine. And we find it hard to control this power.

We find it hard to control this power because most of the time our mind operates automatically, without our conscious effort.

And when the mind operates automatically, there are automatic thoughts that might make us feel miserable. It’s exactly why we need this mental tool.

The One Mental For This Month:

Turn ANTs Into PETs

You might wonder what do we mean by saying ANTs. Of course, ANT is an acronym for Automatic Negative Thoughts.

We all have automative negative thoughts, and we can handle a few. But sometimes our mind can be infested with ANTs, that’s what we need to stop.

Some examples of ANTs are ‘all or nothing’ thinking, focusing only on the negatives, thinking with your feelings, labeling and generalizing.

Other examples are when we try to fortune tell what will happen even if we don’t have any evidence, and when we think we can read other’s minds.

These thinking patterns breed ANT infestations that skew your reality and make it negative. But there is a way to transform the ANTs.

This mental tool helps you transform ANTs into PETs. The acronym PET stands for Positive Encouraging Thoughts.

The difference between ANTs and PETs is in the way they give you mental resources to create better reality and give you or take you mental capital.

ANTs suck mental energy without solving anything. PETs give you mental resources to create better reality and do not waste mental energy.

All you need for this tool is Awareness, Conscious Effort and 4 Questions you need to ask yourself whenever you spot an ANT.

The first question is ‘Is this ANT actually true?’ and it will help you gain perspective. If it’s true ask what you can do about it and generate solutions.

The second question is ‘How does this ANT make you feel?’ and here you just want to become aware of the impact this ANT has on you.

The third question is ‘Who would you be and how would you feel without this ANT?’ as you need to become aware of the better reality without it.

The fourth question is to take the original ANT and ask ‘Is the opposite of my original thought true?’ and try to find as many evidence to support it.

These four questions will turn ANTs into PETs because they take the original negative thoughts and take the charge they have away from them.

They show you the ANT and help you observe it without acting on it, they show you how it impacts you and how you’ll feel without it.

The questions also give you a perspective that there is something you can do, there is a reality beyond the ANT and they help you find the PET.

They help you replace the ANT with a positive encouraging thought that helps you feel better and solve if there is something to solve.

The most important thing about this mental tool is that it forces you to find evidence for the opposite thought of the automatic negative one.

And as you slowly change the perspective a whole new world opens up to you. We all have moments of weakness but we can do something.

It doesn’t mean you will not think negative thoughts, nor that you should, it just means to stop letting the ANTs control what you do and how you feel.