July 6, 2025 • 7 mins
When you’re stuck in a negative mindset, people love to say, ‘Just think positive!’ But what does that actually mean?
And what are some actual, constructive ways that we can turn our negative thoughts into positive ones?
Sarah Grynberg is the host of the chart-topping podcast A Life of Greatness and one of the most requested podcast interviewers for international guests, as well as a mindset coach and author of the newly released book, Living a Life of Greatness.
She made some big mindset changes and has been reaping the rewards ever since.
Sarah shares:
- Why you need to become consciously aware if you want to change your negative mindset
- How you can start to identify negative thoughts in order to prevent them
- A simple strategy for changing your thought patterns from negative to positive
Listen to the full interview with here.
Connect with Sarah on Instagram or her website.
For more from Sarah you can hear her even more on her podcast or buy her new book.
My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/
Connect with me on the socials:
Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)
If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe
Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.
Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au
Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
When you're stuck in the negative mindset. People love to
say just think positive, but what does that actually mean
and what are some actual constructive ways that we can
turn our negative thoughts into positive ones. Sarah Grinberg is
a close friend of mine who realized that she was
utterly burned out and over it despite all the external
(00:24):
signs of achievement in her life. So she decided to
make some changes. She quit her job as the EP
on one of the most popular breakfast radio shows in Australia,
and now Sarah is the host of.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
The chart topping podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
A Life of Greatness, as well as a mindset coach
and author of the book Living a Life of Greatness.
Strategies to adjust your mindset and perspective are right up
Sarah's allie, so I was honored to have her on
to share her experience with us. Welcome to How I Work,
(01:00):
a show about habits, rituals and strategies for optimizing your day.
I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imber. As you might expect,
you can't just suddenly start changing a negative outlook on
life by snapping your fingers.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So where do you start?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
According to Sarah, the first step is to become consciously aware.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I really started. The first thing was becoming consciously aware.
So before that I was completely unconscious, as most of
us are because we.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Don't understand what being conscious is.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
And I started to watch my mind because there's this
beautiful quote by the Sufi poet Roomy which says, why
do you keep yourself in jail when the door is open?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And that was my life.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
My mind would make me so sad Amantha, even though
nothing bad had happened, and you know that happens a lot,
because you know, for me, I came from a family
of worriers, and they worried because they just wanted good
things and for you to be okay. But when you
grow up around people who are always worrying, you take
that on too. But everything can be changed, right, So
(02:14):
I would always worry about things. And the first thing
that I did was try and change my thought patterns,
and that made a huge difference in my life. I
became very conscious about what I was thinking, about what
I was saying, and my actions too.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
How do you change your thoughts?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
So once we have a negative thought, it's very hard
to change that. But the way that we can disrupt
that thought is by moving to the better feeling thought.
I'm a mindset coach, and so I teach a lot
of my clients as this. We have I think it's
something like sixty five seventy thousand thoughts a day or
something like that. Eighty percent of those are negative and
(02:54):
ninety five percent of those are repetitive. So if you're
having negative thoughts, most of them are the same thoughts
every day, right, So learning how to change those thoughts
is very helpful. Think about something that brings you joy
or brings you love in your life. So it might
be your dog, or a person, or even a destination,
(03:17):
whatever it is, have the knowledge in your mind of
what that thing that brings you love and joy is.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
And let's take the example of a dog. You think
of your dog brings you love and joy.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Every time that negative thought comes up, you immediately move
to the better feeling thought of thinking about your dog.
When you start doing this, you could be doing this
like sixty seventy times a day the more you do it, and.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It'll only work if you keep doing this. The more
that the brain and we know.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
This from neuroplasticity, starts to rewire itself, the more it
starts to rewire itself into having those better feeling thoughts
and not the negative thoughts. And the more you do it,
the more the negative thoughts stop happening, and the more
the better feeling thoughts start. If you get into a situation,
which a lot of us do, and I still get
into situations like this two thirty in the morning, wide awake,
(04:07):
the rumination starts happening. Oh my god, I got that email.
Did they mean this? They probably meant the worst thing
in the world. Oh my god, it's going to end
up being X, Y and Z. I'm going to lose
my house. I'm going to you know, like the worst
thoughts come at that time, right, So this is a
great way of being able to help that rumination. The
(04:29):
first thing you do is you look at the thought
and say, the thought was Sally doesn't like me.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So you test the thought. Do you know for sure
that Sally doesn't like you?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Ninety percent of the time, I promise you will not
know for sure that Sally doesn't like you.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
So that's the first thing.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
When we start questioning the negative thought, it alleviates any stress.
The second thing is external and internal levels of control.
If you know, for sure that Sally doesn't like you
external levels of control, Can you do something about it?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Quite possibly, you could.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Go and talk to her and speak to her about
the feelings that you think that she has.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Maybe you could write her an email, whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
So then that alleviates that if there is nothing you
can do in the knowledge of Sally not liking you,
and that's really upsetting you, we go to the next step,
which is the acceptance. The acceptance of the fact that
Sally doesn't like me, and there's nothing that I can do,
but I'm going to accept that and move on. And
(05:29):
then every time that comes up, I move to that
better feeling thought.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So those habits.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
And using that has absolutely changed my life.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
How do you catch those thoughts?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I must say, I'm reminded of a quote that you
put in your book based on one of your podcast guests,
Marissa Pierre, and she said that as little as four
percent of our worries will ever yeah shape, which blew
my mind but also really resonated. How do you catch
yourself when you're in that worrying or catastrophizing state, whether
(06:05):
that be at two thirty in the morning or just
one roundom afternoon.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I have to say that.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Mark Twain, I think it was him, also said I've
had so many worries in the world, none which have
ever come curious.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I love that, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And I remember having a conversation with someone and they
said I had mentioned that exact thing on a podcast
episode that I had done, and they said, it made
me feel so much better when you said that. So
you become consciously aware. If you're consciously aware, you were
always watching your thoughts. And when you're always watching your thoughts,
when you start worrying, you realize that you're worrying, and
(06:41):
then you use the techniques that I just started speaking about.
But another thing to also make sure of when we
talk about conscious awareness is being consciously aware of the.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Way that you talked about yourself.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
You know, you might say to yourself, oh, I look
so awful in that I've put on wait and I
feel terrible, or I'm not good enough.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
To get that job.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
When we become conscious of that, we're able to change it.
A belief is just a thought you keep thinking, nothing
more so if you test that is it true?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
And if you know that, why wouldn't you fill yourself
with better beliefs? Right?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
A belief is just a thought you keep thinking. I
might believe this about myself something negative. Doesn't mean Amantha
thinks that about me. It's just a belief that I have,
and knowing that alleviates so much stress.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I hope you enjoyed this little quick win with Sarah.
If you'd like to listen to the full interview, you
can find a link to that in the show notes.
If you like today's show, make sure you git follow
on your podcast app to be alerted when new episodes drop.
How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of
the Warrangery People, part of the Cooler Nation
When you're stuck in the negative mindset. People love to
say just think positive, but what does that actually mean
and what are some actual constructive ways that we can
turn our negative thoughts into positive ones. Sarah Grinberg is
a close friend of mine who realized that she was
utterly burned out and over it despite all the external
(00:24):
signs of achievement in her life. So she decided to
make some changes. She quit her job as the EP
on one of the most popular breakfast radio shows in Australia,
and now Sarah is the host of.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
The chart topping podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
A Life of Greatness, as well as a mindset coach
and author of the book Living a Life of Greatness.
Strategies to adjust your mindset and perspective are right up
Sarah's allie, so I was honored to have her on
to share her experience with us. Welcome to How I Work,
(01:00):
a show about habits, rituals and strategies for optimizing your day.
I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imber. As you might expect,
you can't just suddenly start changing a negative outlook on
life by snapping your fingers.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So where do you start?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
According to Sarah, the first step is to become consciously aware.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I really started. The first thing was becoming consciously aware.
So before that I was completely unconscious, as most of
us are because we.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Don't understand what being conscious is.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
And I started to watch my mind because there's this
beautiful quote by the Sufi poet Roomy which says, why
do you keep yourself in jail when the door is open?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And that was my life.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
My mind would make me so sad Amantha, even though
nothing bad had happened, and you know that happens a lot,
because you know, for me, I came from a family
of worriers, and they worried because they just wanted good
things and for you to be okay. But when you
grow up around people who are always worrying, you take
that on too. But everything can be changed, right, So
(02:14):
I would always worry about things. And the first thing
that I did was try and change my thought patterns,
and that made a huge difference in my life. I
became very conscious about what I was thinking, about what
I was saying, and my actions too.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
How do you change your thoughts?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
So once we have a negative thought, it's very hard
to change that. But the way that we can disrupt
that thought is by moving to the better feeling thought.
I'm a mindset coach, and so I teach a lot
of my clients as this. We have I think it's
something like sixty five seventy thousand thoughts a day or
something like that. Eighty percent of those are negative and
(02:54):
ninety five percent of those are repetitive. So if you're
having negative thoughts, most of them are the same thoughts
every day, right, So learning how to change those thoughts
is very helpful. Think about something that brings you joy
or brings you love in your life. So it might
be your dog, or a person, or even a destination,
(03:17):
whatever it is, have the knowledge in your mind of
what that thing that brings you love and joy is.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
And let's take the example of a dog. You think
of your dog brings you love and joy.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Every time that negative thought comes up, you immediately move
to the better feeling thought of thinking about your dog.
When you start doing this, you could be doing this
like sixty seventy times a day the more you do it, and.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It'll only work if you keep doing this. The more
that the brain and we know.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
This from neuroplasticity, starts to rewire itself, the more it
starts to rewire itself into having those better feeling thoughts
and not the negative thoughts. And the more you do it,
the more the negative thoughts stop happening, and the more
the better feeling thoughts start. If you get into a situation,
which a lot of us do, and I still get
into situations like this two thirty in the morning, wide awake,
(04:07):
the rumination starts happening. Oh my god, I got that email.
Did they mean this? They probably meant the worst thing
in the world. Oh my god, it's going to end
up being X, Y and Z. I'm going to lose
my house. I'm going to you know, like the worst
thoughts come at that time, right, So this is a
great way of being able to help that rumination. The
(04:29):
first thing you do is you look at the thought
and say, the thought was Sally doesn't like me.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So you test the thought. Do you know for sure
that Sally doesn't like you?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Ninety percent of the time, I promise you will not
know for sure that Sally doesn't like you.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
So that's the first thing.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
When we start questioning the negative thought, it alleviates any stress.
The second thing is external and internal levels of control.
If you know, for sure that Sally doesn't like you
external levels of control, Can you do something about it?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Quite possibly, you could.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Go and talk to her and speak to her about
the feelings that you think that she has.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Maybe you could write her an email, whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
So then that alleviates that if there is nothing you
can do in the knowledge of Sally not liking you,
and that's really upsetting you, we go to the next step,
which is the acceptance. The acceptance of the fact that
Sally doesn't like me, and there's nothing that I can do,
but I'm going to accept that and move on. And
(05:29):
then every time that comes up, I move to that
better feeling thought.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So those habits.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
And using that has absolutely changed my life.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
How do you catch those thoughts?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I must say, I'm reminded of a quote that you
put in your book based on one of your podcast guests,
Marissa Pierre, and she said that as little as four
percent of our worries will ever yeah shape, which blew
my mind but also really resonated. How do you catch
yourself when you're in that worrying or catastrophizing state, whether
(06:05):
that be at two thirty in the morning or just
one roundom afternoon.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I have to say that.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Mark Twain, I think it was him, also said I've
had so many worries in the world, none which have
ever come curious.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I love that, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
And I remember having a conversation with someone and they
said I had mentioned that exact thing on a podcast
episode that I had done, and they said, it made
me feel so much better when you said that. So
you become consciously aware. If you're consciously aware, you were
always watching your thoughts. And when you're always watching your thoughts,
when you start worrying, you realize that you're worrying, and
(06:41):
then you use the techniques that I just started speaking about.
But another thing to also make sure of when we
talk about conscious awareness is being consciously aware of the.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Way that you talked about yourself.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
You know, you might say to yourself, oh, I look
so awful in that I've put on wait and I
feel terrible, or I'm not good enough.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
To get that job.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
When we become conscious of that, we're able to change it.
A belief is just a thought you keep thinking, nothing
more so if you test that is it true?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
And if you know that, why wouldn't you fill yourself
with better beliefs? Right?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
A belief is just a thought you keep thinking. I
might believe this about myself something negative. Doesn't mean Amantha
thinks that about me. It's just a belief that I have,
and knowing that alleviates so much stress.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I hope you enjoyed this little quick win with Sarah.
If you'd like to listen to the full interview, you
can find a link to that in the show notes.
If you like today's show, make sure you git follow
on your podcast app to be alerted when new episodes drop.
How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of
the Warrangery People, part of the Cooler Nation
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