Ever dipped into the ¬biscuit tin then decided you’ve ruined your diet so you may as well eat the lot? Or thought that because you didn’t get a promotion this year, you’re destined for failure in your career?
You’re not alone. Even the most optimistic person is not immune to negative thoughts, but for some, the destructive chatter of self-doubt can be relentless.

Psychologists now believe that just as feeling embarrassed can cause a physical reaction (blushing) so self-destructive thoughts can lead to ill-health, weight-gain, poor skin and misery.

Psychiatrist Dr Daniel Amen has spent a lifetime studying how thoughts influence our appearance, energy and diet success.

His studies have revealed that by flipping negative thoughts to positive, we can transform our lives for the better.

In his new book Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, Dr Amen identifies the infuriatingly common scourge: the ANT (Automatic Negative Thought), which he describes as ‘the little voices that pop into your head and tell you you’re not good enough, not thin enough, a rubbish daughter, mother, worker’.
A few ANTS, he says, can be managed.

But he warns to watch out for ANT infestations — when thousands of negative thoughts start to take over.

The answer, he says, lies in simple ANT-eater techniques that stop the bugs in their tracks, ensuring they never return. ‘Your brain is a powerful organ,’ he says. ‘If you see yourself as fat, old, wrinkled or forgetful, you boost production of the stress hormone which affects your health, your weight and your mind.

‘Negative thoughts can make negative things happen. In the never-ending battles, redemption lies in building your own arsenal of ANT-eater solutions.

‘Develop an ANT-eater in your brain that can eat up all the negative thoughts that come into your head. Whenever you feel mad, sad or frustrated, write down your ANT, then write down what your ANT-eater would say to that ANT to kill it.

Make a pact with yourself to not listen to your ANTS. If you do this, your thoughts will-translate into actions and those actions will cause your body to transform into the body you’ve always wanted. Your body follows your mind. It has no choice.’

SUPER-BOOSTER: ANT-EATER SOLUTION

If your ANT infestation is proving to be particularly bothersome, try this remedy. Write down your ANT — for instance, ‘my skin is so wrinkly and there’s nothing I can do about it’. Then ask yourself:

Is this ANT actually true?
Answer: Yes, I have wrinkles. Then ask: Is there really nothing I can do about it? For instance, can I prevent any more wrinkles coming?

How does this ANT make you feel?
Answer: Sad and old.

Who would you be and how would you feel without this ANT?
Answer: I’d feel great, as if I have more control over how I look.

Now take your original thought and turn it around and ask: is the opposite of my original thought true?
Answer: So there is something I can do to prevent wrinkles — I’ll start looking into getting more sleep, cutting back on alcohol etc.

Extracted from Change Your Brain, Change Your Body by Dr Daniel Amen, published by Piatkus on January 6 at £12.99. To order a copy (p&p free), call 0845 155 0720 UK
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