How to stay focused and positive in your thought life 

Hello my lovely friend, 

Have you ever had one of those days where your mind just can’t seem to focus? 

You’re bombarded by rapid thoughts that are distracting you from the flow of life. 

Well, that’s exactly what happened to me last weekend. 

I was so excited to send out our Weekly Newsletter to all of you, when I noticed there was a glitch in the matrix. 

We were experiencing technical difficulties with our email system and I couldn’t deliver The Good News!

This setback took four days to fix and in that time my mind was invaded by ANTs.

Automatic Negative Thoughts 

ANTs, stands for Automatic Negative Thoughts. They are spontaneous negative thoughts that  pop into your mind.

Often associated with an “all or nothing” pattern, they can lead you down the path of total distraction. 

“The Morning After, I couldn’t send the Newsletter” (AKA Saturday), I began to experience a mild case of ANTs.  

I was thinking thoughts like…

“What if they CAN’T fix the email issues?”

“Of course, this stuff ALWAYS happens to me. "

“I FEEL embarrassed that the newsletter didn’t go out on time.” 

You get the idea…

As I was having these thoughts, I started experiencing a mild sense of anxiety. I felt a bit defeated and didn’t really know what to do. 

Just then, I took a deep breath and prayed for God to give me peace of mind.

I spoke this powerful Word out loud: 

“Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ”

I was reminded that this was not my first time battling ANTs. 

Not only have I overcome Automatic Negative Thoughts, I’ve been given the winning formula to share with all of you! 

Exterminating the ANTs

“... take every thought captive…” Make it obedient to The Truth 

Follow me as I take you through these strategic steps that helped me exterminate the ANTs for good! 

Recognize and be Responsible 

The first step to overcoming anything is recognizing the problem. Because ANTs are rapid or habitual, they can be difficult to identify.

Once you acknowledge the issue, you must take responsibility for your portion. Even though you are not generating the thoughts, it’s important to know you have the choice to disarm them. 

Step one helped me recognize the rapid thoughts that were attacking my psyche. Once I was aware, I chose to pause and pray. This guided me to take responsibility for what I was allowing to enter my mind. 

Confront and Replace 

The next step is to confront the thought. This requires pausing your mind and examining its logic. Most ANTs are lies. This is why it’s important to compare them against unchanging Truth. 

Once you can clearly spot the lie, you must replace it with The Truth. 

Step two allowed me to confront the lies by examining each thought. I noticed the words CAN”T, ALWAYS and FEEL all followed an “all or nothing” pattern. This made it easy to replace the toxic lies with The Truth. 

“I CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens me” is one of the Truths I used to destroy these lies.  

Action not Reaction 

Replacing a lie with The Truth is a powerful step but you can’t stop now!

Once your mind has accepted The Truth, you must take the action that matches the new thought. This will require a change in behavior.

Instead of having an automatic reaction to the old thought, you must now have a new action to the new thought. 

Step three was a bit more complex because it required me to dig deeper and expose my patterns of behavior.

I realized when faced with anxiety and defeat my reaction was to procrastinate. I replaced the old way with a new way by taking immediate action.

I did this by contacting our email service provider to solve the problem. 

 Restore and Repeat 

The first three steps of this formula is the beginning of renewing and restoring your mind.

It is crucial to understand that you must practice this process consistently and continuously over time in order for it to work.

Just like a workout for your body, this mindful practice will help you to stay focused. 

Because it took three days for the service provider to resolve the issue, the thoughts would repeat.

In step four, I created my own loop of following the first three steps. This eventually led to the ANTs being exterminated. 

I’m truly grateful to have experienced a victorious moment where my Automatic Negative Thoughts were transformed into a Positive Mindset. 

Thank you for allowing me to share a lesson on Focus with all of you! I hope this really opens your heart to examine each thought that attempts to enter your mind. 

Think of a time when you had ANTS in your head. How did you overcome them? 

I always look forward to reading your responses.

Stay blessed 

Anahita Naderi 

Founder and Curator of Hidden Dinner 

PS -  I have GOOD NEWS !!!

Mark your calendars for our next HD Event.

We will be gathering at The Table on Saturday May 28th, 2022 at a secret location near you!