Drop The Thought
Ever play the game of hot potato? That is what you must learn to do with negative thinking. What I am talking about here is the power of pivoting from negativity to neutrality. In order to break free from the bondage your mind has you under, you must first learn to "drop the thought" whenever negative emotion arises from reactive thinking. Dropping the thought is a simple and powerful process that can help liberate you from depression, anxiety, and negativity all together. So with that being said, let me clarify this amazing process.
Your thoughts are naturally an empty substance. Most of them are meaningless in their existence. However, we tend to give much unnecessary attention and weight to thoughts; especially the negative ones. It's this powerful ability to focus that takes thoughts and helps them become more "real". This is not a flaw. It's by design. The human mind is meant to be a constructive tool to help create your life the way you want it to be created. That's how you manifest your soul's deepest desires. By thinking about your ambitious dreams and focusing upon the emotion of joy or love as a result of those thoughts, your mind becomes a powerful magnet drawing to you more thoughts and experiences that match that inner state of being. Unfortunately most of us fall victim to the dark side of our mind and allow it to use us instead of us using it. This is where rumination, dwelling, and overthinking come into play.
If your childhood was hectic, out of control, or traumatic in any way, most likely you formed an addiction to thinking in order to feel more "in control" of your life. Living mind-based helped you to predict the potential outcome of many troubling situations. You became an expert at thinking of "worst-case" scenarios in order to better prepare yourself for the pain and suffering you had to face as a child. In the moment, this closed-hearted way of being helped protect your fragile sense of self. But here and now, this habit is totally hindering your potential. The down side of mind-identification is that it sets you up for a life of extreme highs and lows. Because you identify with your thoughts and hold them so close to you, you directly experience the intense emotions that result from negative thinking. Whenever we focus upon something that doesn't feel good: thoughts of insecurity, anxiety, or anger, our body becomes filled with the emotion that matches those thoughts. In a way, negative thinking becomes a trap. The more negative your thoughts become, the more negative emotions you'll feel, and that further serves to ignite more negative thinking. In order to break this vicious cycle once and for all, we must take back the power of pivoting our mind. We must claim back our own inner throne and make our mind our loyal servant. This requires learning how to shift to neutral by dropping thoughts that no longer serve you. Much like releasing a handful of sand into the wind, negative thoughts will eventually give way to the powerful presence of your own conscious awareness.
Dropping the thought is actually a very simple process. With time and patience you can learn to recognize and identify whenever a reactive pattern is occurring within you and then choose to do something about it. This shifting of thought can help re-establish your own power over your mind. Some find it easier to dis-identify from the mind all together, but if you're the type of person who wants to learn deliberate control over your thoughts, then this process is for you. For example, let's say you have a habit of beating up on yourself anytime you make a mistake. (This is a very common pattern with people who grew up with strict parents and teachers). In this scenario, the moment you become aware of your self-abusive thinking patterns is the moment it's time to step in and create a new way of thinking. What I mean by this is learning to consciously shift your thoughts from "God I'm so stupid, how could I have made this mistake?" into "Okay, I made a mistake... No big deal. It's all right, I'll do better next time." Can you feel the vibrational difference between those two thoughts? In one scenario you have a clear and obvious attack on your own self-worth and in the other, you have a inner support system that backs you up no matter what happens in your life. Which thought pattern do you think supports an open heart? I'll tell you from my experience, one of these patterns leads to a life of true abundance and worthiness while the other pattern leads to a life of fear, anxiety, and restriction. The hardest part of this process is learning how and when to step in and take back control. It's about learning how to turn off the auto-pilot before your mind sends you into an irreversible nose-dive toward your doom.
As you know by now, thoughts when left to their own devices tend to turn to the negative. The process of becoming deliberate with your thinking means you've got to recognize when to step in and steer your mind in a more positive (or at least neutral) direction. Really this process is about learning to stop negative thinking before the momentum becomes so strong that it pulls you into your conditioning of suffering and reactivity. Thoughts are truly empty in substance. It's our emotional reaction to them that creates visceral feedback in our body. Negative thinking feels so darn awful simply because it is Energy In Motion or E-MOTION that is Heavily Charged in a Low Frequency. Negative thoughts in general are fear-based and low vibrational in their nature. That's why they feel so foreign to you. You are a high-vibe, radiating being of light and love. Throughout your life here on Earth, you've learned to cling to negative thoughts even though they bring you down. Why do you do this? Because you simply weren't taught otherwise. Nobody stepped in and showed you the power of your own mind. Nobody took you under their wing and gave you instructions on how to live the life of love and abundance that you deserve. Well guess what? It's never too late to take back control of your life and learning to pivot your mind is a pretty major step in that department.
In order to shift your thoughts from negative to positive, you must first learn to get back into neutral. This is why most people fail at "the power of positive thinking". If you're someone who has a lot of negative thoughts and beliefs running in the background of your mind, then making the shift to positivity can seem like way too big of a gap to cross. For most of us, it's pretty rare to have a sudden personality shift from negative to positive. Unless you have a drastic shift of consciousness through a near death experience, mind-altering drugs, or a collapse of the ego as some other teachers have experienced, making this shift will most likely be more of a hands-on process. For me, I didn't have a sudden "AHA" moment that shifted my way of being. I had to learn over time just how negative I had become and that eventually launched my own long journey of molding my new identity through years of self-discovery and recovery. Besides discovering The Objective Perspective, the biggest trick for me was learning to shift my negative thinking into a more neutral state. From there, I learned to build a more positive sense of self and a more optimistic view on life. It all began with taking back the will to direct my own thoughts. That meant doing an inventory check and tossing out the thoughts that clearly had a long overdue expiration date.
Like any thorough inspection, this thought dropping process takes time and patience. Don't be hard on yourself. That just makes things worse. The body and mind can take time to change. You're literally shifting the cellular patterns you've had for years. Be gentle and kind, but most importantly, be persistant and don't give up.
If a rollercoaster is traveling at 60 miles per hour heading one way, can you suddenly shift that ride in reverse and launch it at the same speed in the opposite direction? What kind of damage would that cause to the passengers of that rollercoaster? The same concept is true of the mind and body. We must first learn to slow the momentum of Negativity before we can shift our way of being in the world. Shifting our mindset is something that can be done through either A:) Getting more present in the body or B:) Manually focusing yourself into a better feeling place. We are talking about scenario B in this post. Manually focusing yourself into better emotions is done by identifying when a "trigger" has been activated and then gently guiding yourself into a place of ease and allowance rather than reaction.
For example, let's say you're driving along the highway having an awesome day until suddenly you get cut off in traffic by some angry dude in a Volvo. This triggers your childhood sense of disrespect and injustice in the world. Instead of closing your heart and getting judgmental in your thinking, this is when you must learn to Let Go and soothe yourself back into a state of ease. When you catch yourself thinking thoughts like: "What an Ass... it's jerks like this that make me loose hope in humanity..." This is your chance to put this process into play. Gently guiding your mind back into a place of neutral must take place before you can jump back into your prior positive state. Say to yourself things like: "He must be having a bad day... We all have days like that... I know it's not personal... I wish him well... I'm going to get back to enjoying this drive." See how powerful that little shift can be. By diffusing the situation right when it arises, you then have more control over your state of mind. It's really that easy. We make things out to be way more complex than they need to be. Letting yourself fall into a negative funk because someone cut you off on the way home is really just an excuse for being lazy with your FOCUS. It's all about focus. When you no longer justify your excuses to be wrapped up in a negative point of view, that is when you consciously take back the reigns of your life. No longer allowing any negative momentum to build requires you to step in and create a New Empowered Way of Living.
This process works for any situation. Anything that triggers you or causes you to go down a spiral of negative thinking can be put to rest by applying the "Drop The Thought" process. By recognizing a negative voice in your head, you can then take the steps necessary to shift your perspective and find compassion toward the scenario that is causing you pain. Every triggering circumstance is always an opportunity for growth. The more you Let Go of your resistance to life, the more open your heart becomes. Judgement is the path to closure and suffering. Forgiveness leads to compassion and compassion is the gateway to unconditional freedom and love. I wish you well on your journey and remember, practice makes perfect.
Much love,
~ Austin
