1. “I should be able to control my thoughts,” should be changed to, “I will control my attention,” because people cannot control thoughts.
2. “I should not be thinking this,” should be changed to, “I should not focus on this,” because the pool of negative thoughts will always exist.
3. “I should not have these thoughts,” should be changed to, “I will switch to better thoughts,” because you did not create those thoughts since people cannot create thoughts.
4. “I can’t get this thought out of my head,” should be changed to, “I will stop feeding this thought attention and keep switching to better thoughts,” because what you focus on you repeat and serve.
5. The above-corrected statements do contain the truth that some thoughts give bad advice, directions, and temptations—we know they are bad thoughts because when we act them out, we do bad things.