I was talking with a friend at lunch yesterday. Her phone buzzed with a text message. The message was one of those “send this on to 10 of your friends or suffer the consequences” sorts of things. I laughed. She did not.

You see, the message had created a death spiral of negative thinking in her. About her friend who sent it. About herself for questioning whether she should send it on to other people or not. Guilt for thinking both of things. Guilt about being guilty about those things. Anger toward her friend who sent it because it resulted in this negative thinking on her part. More guilt for feeling anger toward her friend… and so on.

We talked about it. She wondered how I am able to “completely avoid” negative thinking. I told her that I don’t avoid negative thinking at all. I also don’t force positive thinking either. Instead, I detach myself from my positive and negative thoughts as much as I can as often as I can. Research demonstrates pretty clearly that we can’t control our thoughts. But, we can have a focus for our feelings, and our thought streams will adjust accordingly.

So, instead of going down a spiral of negative thinking that builds on itself, I do what I can to keep my focus on positive feelings and experiences. I limit the amount of negative input in my life (like watching the news, for example, or exposing myself to people who I know are negative for long periods of time). I maximize the positive input in my life, mainly through spiritual exercises, but also through seeking out positive people, situations, and experiences.

And I use spiritual exercises to maintain a positive focus. Breathing helps me “clear out” whatever thoughts I may find myself trapped within. Centering Meditation helps me refocus my thoughts around my preferred vision for my life. Listening and trusting my Intuition help me maintain a connection with The Flow of the universe. Expressing Gratitude helps realign my own intentions in positive ways.

One meditation that I particularly enjoy is The Sail Boat meditation. I’ll provide some in-depth instructions for that in an upcoming post within the next week, and post a link to it once that post is finished.

In short, I don’t care about positive and negative thoughts. I already know that I will have both everyday and in most moments. But, I can maintain my positive focus regardless of where my stream of consciousness might divert during any particular moment. And that is the difference between positive thinking and Positive Beliefs.