Bad Memories = Negative Thoughts Sometimes even our best efforts to stay positive can be undermined by negative thoughts stirred up by old memories.
I'm sure we all have these private horrors hidden away in memory.
Our memory of embarrassing or painful events leads to negative thoughts that can erode our confidence and belief in ourselves.
But that isn't all.
Negative memories also generate cynicism and self-doubt that actively works against our positive thoughts or affirmations.
It's just that much harder to believe in your affirmations if your unconscious is continually dredging up opposing negative thoughts.
A Possible Solution? But amazing new research at University College London has suggested something that could help change all that.
The researchers had people watch a film and later tested their memory of what they had seen.
So far, so normal.
Then they told individual study participants a little white lie; that the other participants had recollections of the film that differed from their own.
We Can Rewrite Our Memories! What do you suppose these participants did then? Well most of them changed their recollections to fit in with the recollections of the group.
But here's where it gets even more fascinating.
Psychologists know that in this kind of situation some people only pretend to change their recollection while others really believe their new version of events.
These people rewrote a new memory right over the old, just like a computer might do.
Emotion Is The Key So the researchers tested people in a brain scanner to see what was really going on.
What they found is that those who really believed in the new version of events had a lot of activity in the emotional parts of the brain and parts involved in memory.
Those who only pretended did not have this emotional brain activation and instead the parts of the brain involved in detecting errors was more active.
So it seems that the emotional involvement is important in changing our memories.
How Can I Use This To Get Rid of Negative Thoughts? Memories are easier to change when we bring them to mind so:

1. Think of a memory you want to change, recall it in as much detail as you can.
   Imagine you are telling someone about it, or if you have someone you trust, tell them about it.
   
2. Now begin to go over the memory again but alter (rewrite) the parts you want to change.
   For example, if you slipped on a banana peel and everyone laughed at you, in the new version maybe you did a super cool leap over the banana peel and everyone clapped.
   
3. This is the most important part: you have to really deeply feel the emotions that go with that new memory.
   You can't be half-hearted about this.
   Really feel how great it felt to have everyone clapping you, remember the smiling faces and the pats on the back.
   
4. Periodically bring to mind the NEW VERSION of your memory to help solidify it- it's really important not to let the old version sneak into your thoughts when you do this!

We have to remember that these discoveries are still quite new and the method I've discussed above remains mostly untested.
I have used it myself and although it is early days it seems promising.
If you give it a go, why not let me know how it works for you.
You can leave your thoughts at the website listed in my resources box.