Your mind often focuses on the wrong thing mimicking the behavior of your pet cat or dog.  When you point your finger in any direction, your pet looks at your finger rather than the direction in which your finger points.  The negative mind exhibits the same behavior.  When you experience a negative thought, you often look at the negative thought rather than to where the negative thought points.  This represents a serious flaw in the way you deal with negativity.

When a negative thought pops into your mind, you become entangled in the negative thought.  You look at it from every angle and repeat it hundreds of time.  You continually focus on it, causing negativity to expand further into your consciousness.  Soon negative thoughts overwhelm you.  You ruminate on all of your new negative thoughts, and you have the alarming feeling your life is suddenly turning negative.  You go into a negative tailspin, and don’t see a way out. 

The reason a negative thought is in your life is to point your mind in the direction of the problem that caused it.  Instead of looking at your finger, you should look at where your finger points.  This represents a major change in focus that moves you away from your negative thoughts and makes you deal with the problem causing the negativity in the first place.

If you focus on the negative thought, your life becomes worse.  If you look at where the negative thought points, you can eliminate its source.  This is called finding out what is wrong.  If you don’t discover why the negative thought is there, it’s unlikely you will eliminate it.  It will become a frequent visitor and will bring along all its unwanted friends. 

If you discover why the negative thought came into your mind, there is an excellent chance you can figure out a way to prevent it from happening in the future.  You identify the triggers that send you into a fresh round of negation.  When you avoid those triggers, you prevent unnecessary negative turmoil.

Teaching yourself to look at where the finger points is mainly a matter of discipline.  Rather than getting upset when a negative thought enters your mind, use the negative thought to make your life better.

Excerpt from :

Zero Tolerance To Negative Thinking : Good-by Depression - Hello Positive Mind

David J Abbott M.D.