By Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar┃Posted: July 02, 2018
Trapped in a cycle of negativity? Here’s how to get rid of negative thoughts so you can live with more freedom and happiness.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has many suggestions for making sure your mind stays positive. The following offers you a range of responses to the negative thoughts that often seem to take over your mind.
Here are seven easy ways to stop negative thinking:
Get Busy
When you recognize a negative thought, get busy. If you simply sit, you’ll keep thinking a lot.
Improve circulation in your body
If your head is filled with too many thoughts, lie down on the floor and keep rolling from side to side, and you will see the circulation in the body improves. When circulation improves then the mind feels better. Experience it and see how there’s a change in your mind.
Shake hands with negative thoughts
If you keep resisting negative thoughts and try to push them away, then they will follow you like ghosts. Shake hands with your negative thoughts. Tell them, ‘Come here and sit with me. I will not leave you,’ and you’ll see how they quickly disappear. Thoughts are afraid of you.
If you get scared of negative thoughts then they will control you. But if you shake hands with them, then they will disappear.
Pranayama and meditation
Pranayama and meditation are the best ways to apply brakes in the buzzing mind. They’re very effective and instantly calm your mind down.
Intestinal Cleansing
If you are bombarded with too many negative thoughts, know that something must be wrong with your bowel movement. Do Shankh Prakshalan (intestinal cleansing). That would also help.
Move around
Get up, do your exercise, sing, dance, do yoga; all these will help.
Become a witness to your thoughts
You cannot stop a thought or know a thought before it comes. And when it comes, it goes away immediately. If you’re a witness to the thought, it simply drifts away and vanishes. But if you hold on to it and chew on it, then it stays with you. Thoughts come and go, but that which is the basis of thoughts is the Atma (soul). And that’s what you are. You’re like the sky, and thoughts are like clouds. This could be the nearest example one can give. Clouds come and go in the sky, but can they disturb or limit the vastness of the sky in any way? No, not at all.
So when you fly above clouds, go beyond the clouds, you see that the sky is untouched. It’s the same, unchanged; only thoughts keep moving. This is what happens in meditation when you simply become a witness to thoughts.
We don’t have to attach ourselves to thoughts. That’s foolishness. Whether they’re good thoughts or bad thoughts – they come and go. You’re far above and beyond all this, rising above thoughts and seeing that you have nothing to do with these moving thoughts.
A single, five-letter word
Often, in establishing your righteousness, you are insensitive to others’ feelings. When someone is hurt, arguing with them and establishing your righteousness will be in vain. By simply saying “sorry,” you can uplift the other person and take away the bitterness. In many situations, saying “sorry” is better than establishing your righteousness—it can avert much unpleasantness.
This one word of five letters, when said sincerely, can remove anger, guilt, hatred, and distance. Many people feel pride in hearing “sorry” from others—it boosts their ego. But when you say “sorry” to a wise man, it evokes compassion at your ignorance. And when you say “sorry” to your guru, he will get angry and say, “Go! Listen to Ashtavakra Gita!” You saying “sorry” indicates doership—you feel that YOU have MADE a mistake.
A mistake is part of an unconscious mind. An unconscious mind cannot do right, while a conscious mind can do no wrong. The mind that makes the mistake and the mind that realizes the mistake—saying “sorry”—are entirely different, aren’t they!
A simple technique: the mantra
When a thought arises in the mind, it’s not easy to get rid of it. The thought keeps coming back over and over again, and if you decide to do something else, you will feel uneasy until you finish with that thought. It becomes irritating like a grain of sand in the eye.
Similarly, if you’re unhappy about something, that sadness does not easily leave you, whatever you do to get rid of it. Even when listening to inspiring discourses, that sadness does not go away. Many times you tell your mind that something is trivial and not to worry about it. But the mind or intellect doesn’t pay any attention. So, we can chant a mantra. Our mind takes the form of the mantra that we repeat.
“Manah trayate iti mantrah” – means a mantra is that which is brought to mind again and again.
To practice this, the mind and the mantra should not be separate. The mind should become the mantra. If the mind thinks of something else while chanting the mantra, the mantra will not be effective. The mind should be filled with the mantra. The moment that happens, the mind is free from worry.
A worry is something that is not any place. It’s neither here nor there. A mantra is necessary to drive out worries. A mantra has strength and spirit. When these are present, the mind becomes the power of the mantra. The power of the mind and the power of a mantra are the same.
“Chittam mantrah” – Mind should become the mantra. The power of every mantra can be felt in the form of vibrations. When an atom explodes, its impact spreads not only for many kilometers, but the effects remain for many years – all this from the explosion of an atom! The mind is a thousand times subtler than an atom. Imagine the power of the mind when it becomes quiet. When the mind becomes quiet again and again, this is called mantra. Mantra is the cure for the mind.
Whether the mantra is “Om Namah Shivaya” or “Rama, Rama,” the effect of the mantra depends on how it is pronounced and invoked.
You can control the mind by using a mantra. With the help of a mantra, the mind loses its smallness and becomes vast; the mind that is dissatisfied becomes content, and the mind that is constantly disturbed by desires is released from them and finds fulfillment.
Although a mantra may be the same, its value is different when given by a Guru. Then you feel the power of the mantra.
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Editor’s note
SKY Breath Meditation
Millions around the world have benefitted from SKY Breath Meditation, a program created by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, which improves physical and mental health and prepares one for deep meditation. SKY practitioners have reported more optimism, joy, and life satisfaction while experiencing less stress, better sleep, healthier blood pressure, and improved immunity.
Click on the image below to attend a free introduction to SKY Breath Meditation, and learn why millions worldwide use SKY for their mental health care!
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Founder, Art of Living, is a world-renowned spiritual leader, peacemaker, and master of meditation. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
