I’ve always thought of myself as a positive thinker. I grew up believing each of us can, for the most part, do anything we truly want to do. I’ve made it a practice to avoid people who include “can’t” in their vocabulary.
Therefore it came as a great surprise to me to discover, once I had started to do some work on the inner levels, that even though I was a possibility thinker, it didn’t necessarily mean I was always a positive thinker. In fact, from time to time over the years I’d engaged in less than congenial thinking.
It gradually began to dawn on me that I’d have to do a major overhaul of my thought patterns.
Letting go of negative thinking might seem to be a never-ending battle. Our thoughts define our universe, and if we’ve spent years operating out of negative thought patterns—sometimes seemingly successfully—there can be a part of us that doesn’t want to give it up.
Perhaps you know the type of thinking I’m referring to: the huffing, and puffing, and steaming, and fuming over insignificant inanities that never in a lifetime are worth the emotion spent on them. It’s not difficult to figure out the kinds of thoughts that are keeping you from having peace of mind, and from moving on to a higher level of being.
You can glom on to every tool in your arsenal to overcome negative thinking. Use affirmations and visualizations. Connect with nature. Do some deep breathing. Every time you have a negative thought, use it as a reminder to get back to positive thinking (#35). Develop self-discipline. Keep your energy up. Chant. Meditate. Use your journal, or your pillows (#66). Or ask for help from the universe (#33).
It may take a major effort, but it will be vital for progress on your inner path to become aware of the self-defeating mental grooves you function in, and to make the decision to change them.