How to stop your negative self-talk.
Everyone hears a voice, or several voices, in their head all the time , the involuntary thought processes that you don't realize you have the power to stop continuous monologues or dialogues.
The voice isn't necessarily relevant to the situation you find yourself in at the time, it may be reviving the recent or distant past or rehearsing or imagining possible future situations. Here it often imagines things going wrong and negative outcomes; this is called worry.
The voice isn't necessarily relevant to the situation you find yourself in at the time, it may be reviving the recent or distant past or rehearsing or imagining possible future situations. Here it often imagines things going wrong and negative outcomes; this is called worry.
This is because the voice belongs to your conditioned mind, which is the result of all your past history as well as of the collective cultural mind-set you inherited.So you see and judge the present through the eyes of the past and get a totally distorted view of it. It is not uncommon for the voice to be a person's own worst enemy.
The good news is that you can free yourself from your mind. You can take the first step right now.
1- Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns, those old gramophone records that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years. Listen to the voice in your head , be there as the witnessing presence.
2- When you listen to that voice, listen to it impartially. Do not judge or condemn what you hear, for doing so would mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door. You'll soon realize: there is the voice and here I am listening to it, watching it. This I am realization, this sense of your own presence, is not a thought. It arises from beyond the mind.
Read also: Understanding Depression and how to overcome it
3- So when you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. As you listen to the thought, you feel conscious presence. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides, because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it.
This is the beginning of your natural state of felt oneness with Being, which is usually obscured by the mind. With practice, the sense of stillness and peace will deepen.
4- You can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking.
Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. One day, you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head.
Do you dare believe your thoughts?
I will show you how to get to know your mind.
The good news is that you can free yourself from your mind. You can take the first step right now.
1- Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns, those old gramophone records that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years. Listen to the voice in your head , be there as the witnessing presence.
2- When you listen to that voice, listen to it impartially. Do not judge or condemn what you hear, for doing so would mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door. You'll soon realize: there is the voice and here I am listening to it, watching it. This I am realization, this sense of your own presence, is not a thought. It arises from beyond the mind.
Read also: Understanding Depression and how to overcome it
3- So when you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. As you listen to the thought, you feel conscious presence. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides, because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it.
This is the beginning of your natural state of felt oneness with Being, which is usually obscured by the mind. With practice, the sense of stillness and peace will deepen.
4- You can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking.
Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. One day, you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head.
Do you dare believe your thoughts?
The mind certainly can seem fickle at times and at other times downright nasty. Yet, at other times it seems loving and caring.Your mind is so quick, not only quick to throw a thought at you but also, if you don’t react to that thought, it is quick to throw another thought your way – a different thought, sometimes even a thought that seems a bit like the opposite of the original thought.
It is tough, sometimes, to believe your mind, and things tend to get tough rather quickly when you do. But if you don’t believe your mind then your mind gets all shades of serious, threatening in really reactionary tones.
Read also: 17 natural ways to stop panic attacks
Each thought is your mind’s best possible thought each moment. Embrace each thought, love each thought but know, too, that a thought is just a thought, nothing more and nothing less. There will be another
thought and another and another.
I will show you how to get to know your mind.
a- Your mind is amazing. Your mind is flexible. Your mind is quick and smart and wise too.When it is open, your mind lets go and lightens up. When your mind is closed, it defends and resists. Same mind, but it
seems so different.
b- When you receive but don’t believe your thoughts, the very nature of your thinking will change in wonderful ways. As your relationship with your mind evolves, you will find that a sense of self and well being naturally thrives, and your mind, once open and relaxed, naturally steps down to become the
useful, friendly, wise, witty warrior it can be.
c- When your mind is open, it is curious and loves possibilities. When you are closed, possibilities threaten the mind’s dominance with dastardly results.
Your closed mind settles on one possibility: “He doesn’t like
me” or “I am not smart enough” or “I can’t make enough money”or “things aren’t going my way.” Your closed mind doesn’t care what is true as long as something is. Your mind would rather believe and hold on to a thought or belief that would make your life difficult or impossible rather than have nothing to hold onto at all.
d- Believing something is true is sacrificing endless possibilities which tends to make you intolerant, angry, defensive resistant and a little less light and happy. When you do this over and over, it makes for a bad day, exasperated friends and a less than positive outlook on life.
There is a way out of this crazy, vicious cycle of believing your thoughts. The solution isn’t obvious but it works every time.
Your mind needs practice; it needs to do what an open mind does best: get curious, lighten up and let go. That is the shortest and perhaps the only road to having fun with your mind.
You can’t stop thinking just because you want to stop thinking. You can’t stop thinking “He doesn’t like me” or “She does like me” or “That meeting went poorly” or “My life sucks” Quack! Quack!
Somewhere in your mind’s crazy scenarios, your thought process needs to be interrupted. You need to pause. A pause in your thoughts refreshes you. I will teach you how to disappear thoughts, which will result in little pauses between your thoughts. Each pause will be a tiny step on the road to reinventing your mind as less of an ass and more of an asset.
While some thoughts make good company and a few of them don’t, you tend to focus attention on the ones that are bad company. Learning how to disappear a thought is vital to putting your mind in perspective.
- Return to your senses - Observe your thoughts
While some thoughts make good company and a few of them don’t, you tend to focus attention on the ones that are bad company. Learning how to disappear a thought is vital to putting your mind in perspective.
- Return to your senses - Observe your thoughts