Productive Negativity-What Do You Think?

[Matt Willard]

I'm interested in finding out internal ways to cause change, as opposed to the external. Way I figure it, you change interally, then your enviroment or other external triggers have no power over you, and it should be way more effective to maintain a particular course of action. Of course, stimulating an internal change is far more difficult.

So cue me and my own ponderings about harnessing negative thoughts to an advantage. Like, building up a specific brand of disgust with something. I remember reading how it was easier for Steve to make the switch to different diets as he experienced internal shifts, IE, a growing dislike toward certain foods. I wonder if you could get yourself disgusted or hateful about something you do now, to prevent it in the future, and if it'd be wise. 'Course, negativity is something lots of people are trying to avoid, so it could not be for everyone, but I was wondering what people would think about productive negativity as a method for internal change.

[Angela]

It wouldn't work for me because I'm not interested in nurturing feelings of disgust, hatefulness, or dislike. I'm interested in feeling good, not bad, on purpose!

Also, nurturing thoughts that feel bad about something only serve to keep that thing powerfully in existence for you. For me, I would rather generate indifference to something that's not working in my life, rather than an emotional charge towards it. I would rather just thank it for serving the purpose it has been serving for me, and let it go.

[InterfaceLeader]

I don't think making yourself feel 'disgust' towards anything is really a good idea... it is an attractive force, and can often lead to a vicious circle where you end up using bad food to 'punish' yourself, or to give yourself something to feel guilty over

[The Cloud]

Instead of building up emotions of avoidance, you could build up emotions of attraction. Replace "I hate bacon" with "I love salad." The point is not to not eat bacon, the point is to feel good and be happy with your life. If you build up an emotion of hate toward the bacon, then even if it's not harming you physically it will be harming you mentally.

But if you build up a repertoire of positive things to do, then eventually you'll simply crowd out all the things that you are working so hard to "not do." Trying to "not do" something is disempowering, because it's an impossible contradiction. You can only do things, so "not doing" things is actually doing them, putting energy toward the very thing you're trying to remove. Take that energy and put it elsewhere, into something that you want to do. This won't immediately expunge all negative actions and thoughts from your life, but it will begin to crowd them out because you'll have so many good ones that you won't have time for the bad.

[ar81]

The good side of pessimism is that anything that is better than worse case scenario is a success...
It is the formula for mediocrity and laziness too.

[Dannyboy1]

Originally Posted by Matt Willard

I wonder if you could get yourself disgusted or hateful about something you do now, to prevent it in the future, and if it'd be wise. 'Course, negativity is something lots of people are trying to avoid, so it could not be for everyone, but I was wondering what people would think about productive negativity as a method for internal change.

You have to realize it's your "identity" or who you "think" you are that causes you to defend and fight for things that don't matter. In order to truly change and make it last, you must shed light on every judgment you make and realize it's coming from your ego which wants to be validated as the real you, when it's not. You are the observer behind your mind and your thinking. The real you needs no defense. The real you has no need to judge. The real you is found by focusing only on the present moment.

[ar81]

We are what we build.
Negative is negative because it does not allow people to be happy.
This is why negative is not positive.