If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.
― Peace Pilgrim
“It is not always possible to do away with negative thinking, but with persistence and practice, one can gain mastery over them so that they do not take the upper hand.”
― Stephen Richards
Millions have written on the power of positive thinking, some swear by it while others argue against it. Well, personally, I find there is no point in thinking positively for ‘positive thinking’ sake. The focus should be on the outcome – immediate and long term effect. Science and psychology say ‘where attention goes energy flows’. So, depending on the type of thoughts that a person thinks, more energy of like nature will be produced by that thought.
The difference between positive thinking and negative thinking can be life and death sometimes. It is like driving or riding along a road in hilly areas or near a cliff. Remember your body will follow wherever your mind wander. If your mind, instead of focussing on the road ahead to where it’s leading, you focus on the fall beyond the cliff, you will drive towards the end of the cliff, and if you don’t realise what you are doing (going towards danger) then the inevitable happens… you fall off the cliff or the edge of the road… You could stay on the road by focussing on the road and where you want to go or you can give in to your fear of the cliff and think about it and fall off the cliff!
There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.
― W. Clement Stone
There is a law called the law of polarity that says everything has an opposite of itself. They also called it the duality of things. Black-white, male-female, high-low, front-back, strong-weak, pull-push, light-darkness, happy-sad and so on. In thoughts, we have the positive and the negative. In emotions, we have Love and fear. Now, any thought that we think will immediately create an equivalent feeling or a corresponding feeling with it, the keyword here is immediate. We may not realize or notice our feelings if we have not trained our mind and body to be aware.
When we think of a negative thought, we will begin to feel a negative emotion. A neutral thought will bring with it a neutral emotion. A positive thought will bring with it a positive feeling. You need to get this part very clear. The two opposite emotions, Love and Fear, are the two most basic and also the strongest emotions. The first one can make you and the latter can break you. And since thoughts precede emotions, we have to be careful in observing and choosing our thoughts.
Remember, thoughts always precede emotions, not the other way around. For example, when you (think) that you have been wronged or insulted, you (feel) angry and may even attack (act) the person whom you think have insulted you. Similarly, when you think of a loved one coming to visit you, that very thought will excite you and make you ready to receive the person. it all starts from a thought.
Hence, you can see, for the sake of getting a better outcome, in the long run, it is beneficial to be aware of any thought that comes to our mind and to quickly identify it and entertain or reject it according to their nature. We can do this by keeping in mind what we want most (long term) instead of what we want now (the ego or instant gratification).
take notice of what goes into your mind, the TV, type of music, gossip, blame games, toxic people etc., guard yourself against such inputs. Instead, affirm that your goals are important and you deserve better. Surround yourself with positive and high vibe people.
Negative thoughts are not protecting you, they are making you smaller – Robert Kiyosaki