Notice negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts

about positive thinking, that doesn`t have all the more religious stuff in it. Any suggestions? I started reading “You can heal your life” today. I`m sure it`s a very good book, when when the author for instance states for a fact that we all chose when and where to be born, because we need whatever specific parents, country and time we chose to develop our personality, I get a bit distracted. I`m not saying that is wrong, it`s just not something I believe in, and for some reason that distracts me from enjoying what might very well be an excellent book in many ways. And although I do believe in the powers of positive thinking, which can have a huge impact on peoples lives, I do have a problem with the books that seem to state that if you just think in the right way, the universe will just hand over absolutely everything you want. Hm. Must keep searching for another book, because I do need to work on my positive thinking.

I got the book “the law of attraction” in the mail. It says on the back that “If your life feels as if it has turned south and taken on the characteristics of a bad soap opera, this is the book for you.” Clearly, this is the book for me. These days, all I seem to be attracting is crap (literally even). so I must immediately start reading this and start attracting other things! I told a friend about it, and she gave me a long lecture about how stupid that whole idea is, but I`m willing to try. Once I`ve had the plumber here and cleaned up the crap (the actual crap) from my bathroom and entrance yuk, yuk) I`ll start reading. ;)

is my latest idea to work on this. I try to notice it when I`m thinking negative things about myself, write down what I`m thinking and then write down something positive instead. It helps me see that much of the negative stuff I tell myself simply isn`t true.

I really try to see the positive sides of things instead of thinking counterproductively. But, somehow, my brain just automatically goes in with negative arguments to kill of all my positive thoughs. For instance, I`ve tried recently to think that even though my life is hard right now, it could have been much worse:
-I have a job, I like the people I work with and I`m starting to understand a bit more of about the things I`m going to work with. (But am I doing a good enough job really? I`ll probably end up in sickleave again)
-I have a nice, two bedroom apartment with a lovely balcony. (But it`s a huge mess. I can never have anyone over without cleaning and tidying like crazy before they come. And if things ton`t work out with my boyfriend, there`s no way I`ll be able to afford to keep it.)
-I have two wonderful, fun, loving and quite well behaved dogs. (But am I doing a good enough job with them really? They probably should get more exercise, training and fun challenges. And I still haven`t gotten any further on treating my dogs separation anxiety, I`m not doing well on that at all. And they cost me a fortune in dogsitters because of it.)
-I have already come up with some good ideas for information strategies for some of my projects at work. I`m quite creative really. (Or am I? Those ideas were just based on things I learned in my last job, weren`t they?)

The list goes on and on. Why does brain do this to me?? The problem is, these are quite automatic thoughts, I`m often not even aware that I`m killing off all my positive thoughs like that.