You could try to do good things. Like sew things, cook, and other things. Think about good things.

I'm 54 and grew up with two negative parents and all their negative relatives.....guess I was conditioned well.
However, now that I am aware I can make changes. It takes time and tons of daily practice.
I am making conscious decisions to catch myself and SLOWLY retraining my thinking and self talk from negative to positive. I examine my thoughts carefully and try to decide how I got that negative thought about myself or how I view others. I try to find proof to support the negative which usually gives way to a more positive thought (fake it til you make it). I took inventory with my friends and family and either eliminated them or CHOOSE to spend less time with them. If they start talking negative, I try to change the conversation or remove myself completely. It has created enemies as nobody wants the scapegoat or someone who joined in on gossip or negative talk to change.
I also don't watch or read the news.....or the weather.....it's usually negative or catastrophic which feeds the anxiety and negativity
I listen to positive music (try the song "Happy" by Pharrell Williams).
I also do a gratitude/appreciation rant every day usually while I'm making my bed, taking a shower, and making coffee.

All of these suggestions take time and must be done consistently for it to work.
Think of it like a fully loaded semi going in the wrong direction and he must turn around.....it ain't gonna happen on a dime. He must slow down (become conscious and slowly think the opposite) the momentum to get it turned around.
Listen to some youtube clips on relaxation or hypnosis with guided imagery to help quiet your mind and to help you get some positive energy and thoughts going.
I find eating right and exercise also helps turn your thoughts around. Do something you enjoy like roller skating (if your body allows it), or rowing, walking, or gardening......and so forth. Get out into nature....nature and fresh air solves a multitude of ills, both physical and mental. Find at least 3 things or people you are grateful for before bedtime.

I hope this helps and I wish you the best. You are on the right track by turning the negative to positive. Be gentle and patient with yourself....ok?
Take care....

Thank you for all of the ideas, MsBlank1!! These are great. Also I wanted to add that my husband and I just started reading The 4:8 Principle which is all about thinking positively based on the Bible verse about meditating on things that are good and just and true. I also struggle recently with negative, catastrophic thinking, suspicion, and awfulizing, almost trying to constantly anticipate the horrible thing that's about to happen. It's exhausting to think that way. :)

Its just a habit you have to learn like any other habit. But if you stick with it...it really does work. It is not about changing who you are as a person. Those of us with anxiety will always be negative people...its who we were born to be and you can't change who you were born to be. But you can counter that negativity with positivity.
I like to say that I am a pessimist with an optimistic attitude. For example, if my first reaction to something is "This is going to awful.", I always counter that with "But you know what, I will be fine. I will make it work."
I never just let the negative thoughts stay in my brain and leave it at that because after a while it becomes toxic and then you are smack dab in the middle of an anxiety relapse. So I just trained myself to talk my way through all my negative reactions, and I did it for so long that now it is just an automatic response. My subconscious thinks something worrisome or anxiety filled or negative, and my then my conscious voice....my "big girl" voice I call it....says "Oh stop it, its all going to be fine." It took a long time but over the days and weeks and months and years, it becomes the new way you think.
You just have to stay consistent with it or it won't work.

Always trying to be positive, its so difficult. Tend to have setbacks all the time. Hmm well I feel more positive when I feel feminine and lighthearted. At times it helps me to take care of myself, to spoil myself. Being happy about who I am can spark that inner positive energy. So ive been trying to get in touch with my feminine side and to take pleasure in who I am. And then ofcourse ill have other days when feeling attractive and being sweet/positive are the last things on my mind.

There are two places you can go for this, metaphysical or physical.

metaphysical is all that inner thoughts, and meditation, and stuff. Thinking.

Physical is going and making or doing something.

If you feel negative, achieve something. There is no way for words to win over this: actions trump words. fill your life with things you have done and achieved and fought for and managed and won.

Start small. Go to a wood carving class. Put it on the mantel piece. You did it. Nobody alive with their words can take that pleasure away.

Words are puffs of smoke. They are a vacuum cleaner. They are talkback radio going in another room. Learn to tell them to eff off.

I'm not kidding. I had a mother who had issues. Serious issues. I dont' know anybody else who ever had their mother lecture them for three days solid at the age of 35 for a son saying something she didn't like: but this was my life-long experience. And god save you if you let on you wanted her to stop.

Learn to kick all those bullshit words to the kerb. Tell them to get stuffed. They are rubbish. They are the mental illness of someone else pouring out at you like spew from their mouths.

Don't drink it.

I agree. Pick something you can do physically that gives you natural relief from the train of thought pattern.

I have to remind myself to be specific in my positive thought in order to get through the usual patterns in certain social situations, and then I do something physical to ground my though pattern again as needed.

Physically moving will naturally reduce the overwhelming anxiety symptoms, and as you move, you can use positive images, words, phrases and connect the "feeling better" action to help you change.

Best wishes!

Hello. I too am trying to concentrate on being more positive. I found that the book called The Power of Positive Thinking by Vincent Peale to be very good.

Also, I highly recommend a sequel of 3 books by Rhonda Byrne called THE SECRET, THE POWER, and THE MAGIC. These are awesome and life changing books
.
Louise Hay is a writer and lecturer who lives her life according to the law of attraction, as talked about in THE SECRET, THE POWER, and THE MAGIC. Those who have applied what it says in these books have had their lives change dramatically. I have read THE SECRET, got part way through THE POWER, then didn't get back to it so going to re-read it from the beginning. I will then read the third book, THE MAGIC. It is all about the law of attraction, how if we think positive and feel and believe that good things are coming to us, they will. It is said that we should act as though the good things we want in our life have already happened before they actually do. Instead of saying I will or I am going to have a certain positive thing in my life, we should say I Have, or I am, such as I have good health, I AM at peace, etc. If we dwell on negative things, we attract more negative to us, and if we concentrate on giving and receiving love, and practising gratitude we attract love and joy.

Physical exercise and other work, effort, that brings a tangible positive result, like health, money and harmonious, collaborative, mutually beneficial relationships, sure helps me.

MsBlanks suggestions are excellent. I've been working on implementing them. I must admit it has been a long road. I still have a long way to go. I get distracted and stop for months at a time. But I never give up. I just start over

Tricksters suggestion of Louise Hay is another great idea. I haven't read magic yet but I've tried many techniques and they work.

Good luck and never give yp