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For the last several years, there has been a lot of focus on the
power of positive thinking. Many people have come to misinterpret this wisdom
to mean that it is not okay to have a bad mood or a negative thought or
feeling. This can lend a kind of superficiality to their relationship with
life and relationships with other people. It can also lead them to feel that
if a negative thought or feeling comes up, in themselves or someone else,
they must immediately block it out. When they do this, they are engaging in
the act of repressing a part of themselves that needs to be seen, heard, and
processed.
When we repress parts of ourselves, they don't go away so much as they get
buried deep within us, and they often come out when we least expect it. On
the other hand, if we allow ourselves to be fully human, honoring all the
thoughts, feelings, and moods that pass through us on a given day, we create
a more conscious relationship with ourselves. Instead of blocking out
thoughts and feelings that we label as negative, we can simply observe them
and then let them go. They only get stuck when we react to them negatively,
pushing them down and out of sight where they get lodged in our unconscious
minds. A healthier solution might be to develop a practice of following any
negative thought we may have with a positive thought. This works well because
positive thoughts are many times more powerful than negative thoughts.
Rather than setting our minds up in such a way that we become fearful of the
contents of our own consciousness, blocking out anything that is less than
100 percent positive, we might resolve to develop a friendlier attitude
toward ourselves, trusting in our inherent goodness. When we recognize our
true inner worth, a few dark clouds passing through our minds will not
intimidate us. We will see them for what they are -- small, dark figures
passing through an expansive sky of well-being and truth.
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