I was amused recently to hear the story of a sage who grappled centuries ago with the issue of negative thinking. As a young man this fellow realized that, if he allowed them to, his negative thoughts would completely control his life, and he’d never get to heaven. So he decided to do something about them.
He acquired two stacks of pebbles, one dark and one light, which he placed outside his hut. Every time he had a negative thought, he’d take a pebble from the dark stack and place it in a pile. When he had a good thought, he’d take a white pebble and place it in another pile.
In his youth, the dark pile was larger than the white pile. However, as he went on in life, the white pile began to completely overshadow the dark pile. By the time he was ready to depart this world at an advanced age, he had completely conquered his negative thinking. No doubt he went straight to heaven.
My first urge, on hearing this tale, was to call up our local gravel supply company and have them drop off a couple of tons of pebbles. But, on reflection, that seemed impractical. After thinking about it for a while, as an experiment—and because I believe we have to have some fun along the way—I came up with what I think is a suitable, slightly modified alternative: black beans.
Actually, any type of bean would work. Get two cups. Fill one with uncooked beans. Keep both cups on your desk, or wherever you spend the majority of your time. The absolute first moment you see a dark thought lurking around the edges of your mind: bam! you have to make a beeline to the full cup, take out a bean, and place it in the other cup.
At the end of the day, check your cup and do a tally, which you can keep track of on your discipline calendar, or anywhere that’s handy. This exercise will give you an incredibly clear picture of the amount and the variety of the less-than-positive thinking you engage in.
Once you’re aware of your thought patterns—either negative thinking, worrying, judging, or whatever—you can begin to control them, and replace them with the kind of thinking you’d rather concentrate on. By elevating your thoughts you elevate your consciousness and accelerate your inner growth.