How to Deal with Unwanted Thoughts | Negative Thoughts

Thoughts…thoughts… and more thoughts!

Our life is engulfed by numerous thoughts. Throughout the day, several thoughts incessantly run through our mind. For many of us, it is a cycle of negative thoughts, followed by positive thoughts, thoughts of the past and then thoughts of future, happy thoughts, worrisome thoughts, and so forth. However, a common person mostly gets glued onto negative thoughts or unwanted thoughts and begins to grieve, fret, or complain.

Is there some way that one can get away with these unwanted thoughts, especially those that torment us?

In this series of short articles, we would learn simple yet practical tips that will help us shift our focus from troubled or unwanted thoughts to thoughts that would make us more peaceful and happier.

Suppose you are standing someplace and another person were to stand just behind you and keep saying, “Don’t look back, but listen to me carefully. Do you know there’s been a sharp rise in inflation? Life is no longer secure. The future is unpredictable. Whatever you’re trying to accomplish is meaningless. People do not respect you. You can’t do this, it’s not possible for you,” etc.

Do such lines ring a bell? The scenario is not a mere imagination. This person, who stands behind us and passes such comments, is none other than our own comparing and judgmental mind. You can’t even turn back to respond. You try to highlight the positive aspects of life, but this barrage of negative thoughts overpowers you. You might respond, “It is possible that whatever you’re saying is right, but I have a solution to all this.” To this your mind would say, “How can you solve this! It is not that easy.”

Just like a non-stop commentator sitting beside you, the mind does a running commentary about whatever is happening around you. This commentary causes you to feel sad, then happy and then sad again; this goes on throughout the day.

At one moment, you may be thinking about some joyful event and the very next moment, a past incident pops up in your mind, making you feel sad and upset. If you are in a jolly mood, all of a sudden a thought would appear and tell something that would make you feel tensed.

The one who can train his thoughts properly, especially the ones that torment us, always leads a peaceful and successful life. You need to learn how to deal with such unwanted thoughts. Dealing with such thoughts implies confronting them and engaging them in a constructive dialogue with your own thoughts. This has never been taught to us informally or even formally in schools. Every parent should learn this art and ought to teach this to their children as well.

When you do not know this art of tackling your unwanted thoughts, they would invariably compel you to remain in a state of constant grief and stress. You would strike an expensive deal by giving undue value to your thoughts. What do we mean by striking an expensive deal? Suppose you have gone to the market and a certain commodity caught your fancy, and you want to buy it. If you know how to bargain, you would pay the right price for it; else you would pay an exorbitant price. This is called an expensive deal.

In other words, when the shopkeeper quotes the price as Rs. 200, you won’t believe him if you know that it is available for Rs. 150. When the vendor realizes that you have the knowledge of the appropriate price and the features of the commodity, he will quote the near-right price to you.

Similarly, instead of taking the words of what your thoughts say on face value, introspect deeply and honestly whether what your thoughts say is the truth or just a story made up based on assumptions and prejudices.

Thoughts of the recent past or the near future constantly run through our awareness. Pursuing these thoughts distracts us from the work at hand. It’s only when we regain awareness that we realize that we had been distracted. Hence it becomes all the more important to train ourselves and deal with thoughts in ways that would give a positive direction to our lives making it happier and peaceful.

In this series, we will be learning how to deal with our own thoughts to detach and free ourselves from their vicious cycle making our lives more happier and peaceful.

~ Based on the teachings of Sirshree

Read Article no 2 – How To Deal With Unwanted Thoughts – Series (2)
Read Article no 3 – How To Deal With Unwanted Thoughts – Series (3)
Read Article no 4 – How To Deal With Unwanted Thoughts – Series (4)
Read Article no 5 – How To Deal With Unwanted Thoughts – Series (5)