Negative Thoughts: How To Move From Stuck To Joyful

A photo of a snowy, rainy, sunshine mountain scene, with a pond reflecting the conditions. Our negative thoughts are reflected back to us, so we need to work on shifting them to something more positive.
Mt. Lorette Ponds, Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada
Copyright © 2021 Lee Spirit

My last two articles focused on manifestation and the Law of Attraction, and I’m still stuck on this topic because it’s both easy and difficult at the same time. I’ve been re-reading one of my favourite books, “Ask and It is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires”, by Esther and Jerry Hicks. It has made me think over the past week about what we can do when we’re really stuck in our negative thoughts and can’t find our way out?

Sure, manifestation is easy when we already feel joyful, abundant, and flowing. But the world is a crazy place these days! Many of us are suffering in one way or another. So it’s easy to feel stuck in a negative swirl, stuck in polarities, and not have a clue how to find our joy again!

I went out into the mountains the other day to reflect on what I am creating and manifesting in my own life. The weather was undecided about snow, rain, or sunshine – There’s a bit of everything in this photo! It resulted in a beautiful shot, but reflected the state of chaos in the world, and in our own minds. We can’t attract the conditions we desire unless we are clear on what we want, and take steps to get there…

Look Up To Start Changing Your Negative Thoughts

I mentioned in my last article this technique I came up with for elevating negative thoughts. That being that when you notice you’re having a negative, lower vibrational thought, look up, and say in your mind, “Higher…Higher”…Then choose a higher, better-feeling thought. The physical act of looking up is helpful to me, like looking to the heavens or Universe for inspiration and higher vibes! Try it and see if it works for you too!

As an example, I often say, “The cloudy sky makes me feel unmotivated to do anything!” Instead, I could say to myself, “How amazing that the clouds hold in the warmth of Mother Earth! No two clouds will ever be the same again as they float by in the sky! What a blessing to witness this miracle of nature! How lucky I am that I live in the sunniest city in all of Canada! The sun always rises, even behind the clouds!” It may not make me feel any more motivated in the end, but it’s the beginning of being aware of my negative thoughts, and consciously choosing to elevate them.

When we get into the habit of being aware of our lower energy thought patterns and immediately raising them higher, the old habit of getting stuck in the density of negative thoughts starts to fall away. If we develop this new, healthy habit, it becomes automatic. A higher, lighter vibrational energy becomes the norm for us rather than a stuck, stagnant energy. The higher vibe energy that comes from a place of neutrality will give us freedom.

Revisit my post on How To Raise Your Vibration & Attract What You Want.

How Do We Reach For a Higher, Better-Feeling Thought?

I had a dream the other night where I was with a friend who read my thought: “It won’t last”. She said to me, “Who said that? Was that a voice in your head? What do you believe?” I find this so powerful and profound because it’s so true! The thoughts in our minds become our realities if we believe them to be true. If I think “It won’t last”, and believe it won’t last, then it won’t last! What if I said to myself instead, “What a beautiful present-moment that I will always cherish, and anything is possible”? Do you see the power we have to create our own realities?

The concept sounds fairly simple to just switch from negative thoughts to something more positive. But in practice, it’s not really all that simple. If you’re grieving the loss of a loved one, for instance, you don’t just think happy thoughts, and suddenly you feel better! If you’re in the throes of depression, you don’t just come out of it by looking up and thinking about something “higher”.

What Are Your Emotions Telling You?

Going back to this book I’ve been reading, “Ask and It Is Given”, we all have an “Emotional Set Point”. This is where we are at on the continuum of emotion. We may be experiencing grief, anger, jealousy, rage, shame. Or maybe we are light, joyful, blissful, energized, creative, and flowing.

When reaching for a higher feeling thought, we don’t just jump from feeling rage to feeling blissful by choosing bliss as the higher thought. This will only create frustration and possibly make you feel worse. We have to take baby steps, in a gradual process, to the next higher thought on the continuum.

As they say in the book, you can’t just put a happy face on it! Our vibration must be a match with the vibration of our desire. We get there by reaching for the next higher thought on the continuum. This will help us get rid of the obstacles in our path.

What Emotion Do You Feel In This Moment?

Consider that you feel rage in this moment, or maybe you’ve been feeling rage for a while now. Think about what might make you feel slightly better. The next higher thought in this case may be anger. Notice that joy is not the next higher thought. What might feel better than anger? Maybe it’s fear, annoyance, or frustration.

While that still doesn’t feel like a pleasant, joyful emotion, it’s getting you closer to contentment. After we feel content, maybe we can feel happiness, which leads to joy, which leads to bliss, and so on. It might be helpful to write down a continuum of emotions so that you can see them on a regular basis, and quickly identify where you are at, and which better-feeling thought to switch to next.

In this process, it’s important to allow yourself to feel what you feel rather than shoving it down or pushing it away. Repressed emotions will only create more resistance to the natural flow of life force energy. You will be less able to attain the happiness, empowerment, or freedom that you seek.

Listen to what you feel, both in your body, and in your mind, and consciously and gradually move towards higher and higher thoughts until higher vibes come naturally to you. That’s when you’ll start attracting more of what you want.

Types of Higher, Better-Feeling Thoughts

Again, a list that you write down and can see in front of you may be helpful when it comes to changing your negative thoughts. Once you identify the low vibe thought, reach for some of these higher vibe thoughts. There’s a list of 22 processes you can go through in the book, “Ask and It Is Given”. Here are just a few of my faves:

  • Practice Gratitude & Appreciation – When you are already in a good mood, you may practice gratitude and appreciation to raise your vibes even higher. Look for things in your current environment that you can appreciate. I love seeing the sunlight through a bird’s wings in flight. So angelic, and it makes me smile and appreciate nature and wildlife. Every time you appreciate something you invite more of it into your reality.
  • Imagine What’s Possible – Envision what you desire and create this in your present moment. Don’t just imagine it, but also feel what it would feel like to have it, and vibrate that feeling. I have dreamed of many places in the world I’d like to visit. Without focusing on never having been there, or not being able to afford it, I imagine what it feels like in my mind’s eye. Then I vibrate the feeling of empowerment I get when travelling there solo. If I focus on this desire, I find ways to make it a reality, and figure out how I can afford it. My high vibes attract the perfect opportunity for me to get there and enjoy that freedom and empowerment.
  • Meditate – Quiet your mind rather than shifting negative thoughts to positive ones. The quieter the mind, the more receptive you become to the life force energy that allows high vibrations and manifestation to occur. You will enter into the state of allowing what you want to manifest.
  • Reflect on Your Dreams – I’ve had some doozies in the dream-department! Your dreams reflect what you have been focusing your thoughts and energies on. They give us clues as to where we need to shift our conscious thinking. Pay attention to what you were feeling in the dream. A strong emotion will likely be one of your dominant thoughts – positive or negative – and it will guide you to shift your thoughts. In my example above, I thought, “It won’t last”, and the friend said, “Who said that? Was that a voice in your head? What do you believe?” If I change the dominant belief or feeling I had in the dream to, “Anything is possible!”, I can change my reality!
  • Practice Positive Expectation – Usually when we don’t have something we want, we express that we don’t have it. Expression is a vibration you put out into the Universe. So if your vibration is lack, or not having it, the Universe will give you more of not having it. If we rephrase our expressions, we have a better chance of attracting it to us. “Wouldn’t it be nice if I had money to travel?” is more positive than “I don’t have enough money to travel”. The expectation that you are going to find a way to travel is a higher vibe, and puts you in alignment with what you desire.
  • Clear Your Mind & Environment Clutter – When your mind, and also your environment are cluttered, then there’s resistance in the vibrational energy. We want to clear all this out so that we have a free-flow of positive energy to attract more joy. That reminds me to get the bike out of my living room this weekend so there is less clutter and more space for manifesting!

There are many more ways to get unstuck from the negative cycle of emotions within us and to create a joyful life. But the idea here is to always aim for the higher, better-feeling thoughts. If you’re in a very low place, which many of us are these days, then reach for the next best feeling. Even if it’s still not “positive”, as in the example of moving from rage to anger, move along the continuum until you get to joy. We want a free-flow of positive energy, and to always strive for a feeling of well-being, and feeling good and joyful. Let me know how this process works for you!


Lee Spirit is an avid outdoors adventurer with a love for nature, photography, health & fitness, wellness, and spirituality. Her own personal journey has led her to the study and practice of mindfulness, health, wellness, yoga, spirituality, sound healing, meditation, and personal development for over 20 years. My Free ‘Natural Mind Healing’ Report will help you shift your negative thoughts from low to high vibe! Get it now!

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