affirmation question

[TheFlyingMan]

Hi guys,

Is "I am free of negative thoughts" still focusing on the negative thoughts? I've been having the most trouble freeing myself from these negative thoughts popping into my head daily. It's driving me up the wall, and I think that knowing that I shouldn't have these negative thoughts adds another layer of anger to it - I'm beating myself up for feeling bad.

Anyway, as a book suggested, each time I catch myself with a negative thought, I should replace it with a positive affirmation. I've been toying with "I'm a master of my thoughts", but I don't know if its specific enough. Is "I am free of negative thoughts" ok? Or is it still focusing on what i dont' want?

[Colm OReilly]

TheFlyingMan,

Really it depends on what you're focusing on when you say it. Are you focusing on the feeling of freedom or on the negative thoughts.

Affirmations work by focusing your intention, but like everything else, it's imperfect and user dependent.

A suggestion could be "I'm full of positive thoughts."

Lots of love,
Colm

[Dating Specialist]

Another suggestion.

Stick posters with positive quotes and words in your room. Make sure that it's the first thing you see when you wake up, last thing you see before you sleep and put them at strategic positions where you will pass by very often.

Out of sight, out of mind. But if you keep seeing such affirmative and positive words, it's hard not for your brain to react to them, even if you don't consciously memorise them, but your subconscious mind would have photocopied the words and slowly but surely implant them into your brain.

Hope this works

[magickmystik]

i think the problem is because your mind is in turbulance in the first place, much clutter.

[Gordon]

I think you need to have some negative thoughts, to realise that tou can overcome them by positiviely.

It would be a fool, who thinks he will never have a negative thought again.

My way of dealing with them....(I have one at the moment, with my sister-in-law.....arrrrgghhh....I'm having a negative thought.).....what do is I project the image onto a blank screen in my mind....then I see myself pulling the screen down and scunching it up into a ball and throwing it away.

What I believe it does is tells me that I have the power to overcome these thoughts, there and then and when I do it, the negative energy disapated and I start to smile again.

The other trick is to laugh at the negative thought and say, hey this is not worth getting upset at...I have placed that in my list of affirmations and it seems to work great as a reminder when negative thoughts come.

It's all about recognising what to do when they come, not about ever getting rid of them permanantly....(although that would be nice.),.,.....

The more you practise the easier and easier it gets and the less and less negative thoughts you will have.

Good luck,

G

[Athena]

Originally Posted by TheFlyingMan

Hi guys,

Is "I am free of negative thoughts" still focusing on the negative thoughts? I've been having the most trouble freeing myself from these negative thoughts popping into my head daily. It's driving me up the wall, and I think that knowing that I shouldn't have these negative thoughts adds another layer of anger to it - I'm beating myself up for feeling bad.

Anyway, as a book suggested, each time I catch myself with a negative thought, I should replace it with a positive affirmation. I've been toying with "I'm a master of my thoughts", but I don't know if its specific enough. Is "I am free of negative thoughts" ok? Or is it still focusing on what i dont' want?

definitely no to that affirmation. All phrases in it should be what you do want.

'My mind is clear and peaceful' or 'I have a clear and peaceful mind' works.

Also, besides from affirmations, you might want to target the issues that your mind seems to be working on, you can list them, and maybe rationally cancel them out, either by yourself or with a teacher or therapist.

Then you can use the blanket affirmation over it to keep your mind clear.

[Sadhana]

I think a much better affirmation is "I have a positive/optimistic mind" or "I have optimistic thoughts" or "I'm a positive person." If you think about it, what you really want is to be positive (as opposed to being not NOT negative).

[TheFlyingMan]

Thanks guys, I'll give it a shot...

Thanks for all the other suggestions too. The issues in my mind seems to be of ex-relationships, and that has been my biggest weakness, I always seem to take a year or so to get over relationships, no matter how long they last.

Recently I've discovered through reading Eckhart Tolle's work, and I agree completely, that I've been focusing on the "content" of my mind/ego, whereas the problem is the "structure". Even if I remove all concerns/pain/regret etc over my relationships, my ego is still there and is still searching for other painful memories to relive.

The only difference is, since relationships are my weakness and its such a jumbled mess of emotions, when I relive these memories, it hurts a lot more. And also, I have A LOT of these, and controlling my reactions to them (by observing them, seems to work the best for me) doesn't work all the time as sometimes I forget and then identify with them again. Like, I don't even notice and then hey - I'm in the middle of a past pain again. This happens like every 5 minutes, that's how bad it is when I'm lying in bed trying to get to sleep (much less in the day).

It's causing me insomnia and is affecting my day activities as i'm too tired. Technically though I think I am over the last relationship. It's just my ego / painbody (if anyone has read Tolle)looking for things to identify with.

[Michael Chui]

Don't trap yourself in words and language, either.

Language is great for getting specific about what you want to intend, but it's not so useful for more general notions, such as what you are considering. This is part of the content/structure problem you state.