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When negative thoughts arise, it is best to address them rather than
pushing them down where they will surface again. 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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