Transform Negative Thoughts for a Happier Life

Everything you do in life has an underpinned pursuit of feeling peace, love and happiness. But today despite working hard, these emotions seem elusive—now you feel nice, the next moment you do not. Most of us ride an emotional roller-coaster from time to time. But we refuse to take responsibility for our emotions. We find it easier to blame the world for how we feel, and hence say, Life is a roller-coaster.

The origin of our behavioural responses lies in the most basic of our internal responses: our thoughts. Our thoughts create our feelings, words and behaviour, in that order. If we take care of our thoughts, we will not need to be careful with our words and behaviours. Right thoughts will always create the right response. Sometimes we create thoughts of irritation, impatience, hurt or jealousy but we manage to speak sweetly. Let us master the art of creating the right thoughts in response to every scene. We will then not find the need to suppress our thoughts or hide our feelings. This brings transparency, authenticity and integrity.

A reaction is ‘automated’ where we act without pausing to choose how to be. A response is where we consciously choose how to be. When we choose a response, we do not get swayed by the quality of the situation.

The ripple effect of our impulsive reactions in the chain of daily events is also noteworthy. The mood created in one scene, if not corrected, is more likely to get carried forward into the next. Suppose we face a situation with anger. There is a high possibility that a slight trigger in the next incident will again push us to react angrily. Unless we consciously choose a different response like peace or calmness, our angry reaction is likely to spill into the next scene, and the next and so on. Soon, anger becomes an ‘automated’ reaction as we go through the day complaining about and blaming the things that don’t go our way.

Thoughts are a conversation or an inner dialogue with our own self. Thoughts are like scripts created by the mind-naturally, automatically and endlessly. A thought can be an idea, an opinion, a question, an answer and so on. The purpose of a thought is to prompt us to take one or more meaningful actions and create a desired outcome. Every human creation, every discovery and every invention is a consequence of a thought in someone’s mind. The mind churns out an unceasing flow of thoughts related to various events, people, ourselves, situations, objects, places … just about anything. Much like every blink, pulse, breath and heartbeat, our thoughts are also incessant.

Creating one negative or wasteful thought after another depletes our mental energy reserves. This is why we feel mentally tired or fatigued, even when leading physically comfortable lives. But our mind which creates over 85 percent of wrong thoughts, is perfectly capable of creating 100 percent pure and elevated thoughts. That is our potential.

Thoughts are our creations. A series of thoughts give rise to our feelings or emotions-happiness is a feeling, peace is a feeling, love is a feeling. These are feelings we experience because of the thoughts we create.

We succeed at times, fail at other times; people obey us at times, disobey us at other times; we receive compliments at times, criticism at other times; we are healthy at times, we feel aches or pain at other times. That is certain. When we do not focus on our inner world, how we feel becomes dependent on our outer circumstances, and hence our feelings start to fluctuate. If a situation is favourable, we feel great. Otherwise, we become overwhelmed by pain, anxiety, irritation, anger or fear. We are often aware of our feelings but not of our thoughts. Sometimes, we want to change how we feel, but are unable to do so because feelings are created as an outcome of thoughts. All we need to do is reflect on the kind of thoughts we have been creating and change those thoughts.

It is impossible to change our feelings without changing our thoughts.

Being with yourself means being comfortable with the thoughts and feelings in your mind. When you are feeling relaxed, calm and peaceful, you will easily be able to sit with yourself. In those moments you can be alone but never lonely, because you will enjoy being in the company of your clean mind and pure vibrations. Oftentimes, we uplift a close friend’s mood and they lift ours. Now, we need to do that with ourselves because our goal is to achieve emotional independence. Self-counselling is a valuable skill to master, and these are simple steps to do it:

Step 1: Write your thoughts about the issue on your mind.

Step 2: Answer those thoughts as if you were consoling someone else-with patience, love and empathy.

Do you see a glass as half full or half empty? This question can be a good starting point for an attitude check. Attitude means everything’ is a popular saying for a reason. If there is one aspect of our personality which instantly reflects in all our relationships, friendships, work or health, it is our attitude.

Attitude is a mental filter through which we perceive and experience the world. It is developed based on how we feel about ourselves, other people, objects, events and situations in life. Our attitude is created by our feelings, which in turn are created by our thoughts. So, our attitude does not just ‘come’ to us. It is our creation and it affects every dimension of our life.

Source : The Power of One Thought: Master Your Mind, Master Your Life by BK Shivani

Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/156980106-the-power-of-one-thought