Thoughtful Examination

What’s the best way to deal with negative thoughts?

I am, more often than not, a pessimist.

At least recently, that’s been the way I’ve been living. I noticed this downturn not long ago that I’ve recently been overcome by.

A feeling of intense despair.

Hopelessness.

Void.

It begs a question: What do I do to cope with this?

Negative thinking is an insidious thing. It creeps in, internalizes itself. It spreads, and it transmits from one person to another.

A drop of poison that ruins the well.

A tumor grows until it is excised.

What does one do?

I’ve decided that the first step is simply to stop putting more poison in. Engage with people in a positive way. Speak positivity. Ignore the negative input for a time. It will be there for you later, should you wish to rejoin with it, I promise.

Secondly, take your negative thoughts and examine them. Does it serve you? Can you have any effect on that thing which you contemplate?

Dissection of the problem can be a path to acceptance of a difficult thing, or a path to changing a difficult thing, or a path to enduring a difficult thing.

It’s important to direct your thoughts. Pleasure is good in doses, but toxic in excess. Pain is protective in doses, but destructive in excess.

The same is true of your negative thoughts. They alert you to a problem. They are an extension of your sense of reason and awareness. But, like all things, they must be regulated properly, and directed to meet your needs.

The price of gas is too high!

Aye, indeed it is. And yet, I can do nothing about the price of gas, and I must have it, so why dwell on it for more than a moment?

I am missing an arm!

Indeed you are, and what of it? Can wishing for another arm, or raging against its absence, bring you a new appendage?

My house is a mess!

Yes, and you are the one making it a mess, and you are the one who cleans!

Digest, Do, Discard.

You’ve thought about the problem, but now it is go time. Thinking is a precursor to action, and action is the result of thought. To think is to generate a kind of mental tension, and to do is to release it.

This is the time to do or discard. If there is something you can do about the problem, do it. If not, the negative thoughts should be both acknowledged and released.

What have you been holding which you could have already cured? Or rather, what is holding you, which you could have already cured? Treat the problem, that hateful condition. Do not allow it to continue percolating in your mind, producing unnecessary tension in you.

This can be done by any action that represents release. Write it down, and burn it! Create a mantra, declaring that your thought has served its purpose, and must necessarily end.

Whatever is done, its only requirement is that the operation is effective. Excision of the tumor must be complete, lest it grow back and torment you further.

And my last and most important advice is this: If you haven’t looked to God, look to Him. For what harm can really befall you if you are His child? All of the evils of the world can do nothing to separate you from Him, and His love. And that should bring you some peace, and rest.