 Negative thinking can take the form of worry. It can take the form of vicious self-criticism. You need some way of dispelling those negative thoughts. And if you've ever been awake at 2 in the morning, you know that the power of positive thinking is a joke. Because negative thoughts have much more power. When I try to think positively, the negative thoughts just laugh at me. So how do we control negative thinking so we can get on with our lives?