Select a personal Mantram. For an entire day, practice arresting your negative thoughts. When you have trouble moving your mind away from negative thoughts, silently repeat the Mantram you picked to yourself, over and over again, until your mind loosens its grip on the negative thought. This may take several minutes or more.
Take notes throughout your day, including: a) what types of negative thoughts were you tempted to repeat to yourself?; b) how difficult was it to loosen your mind’s grip on those negative thoughts?; c) how did you feel when you were able to put those negative thoughts down?; e) how did others respond differently to you when you avoided acting negatively?