Negative thoughts are an evil force, and that force is strong, stubborn, manipulative, and convincing. Negative thoughts come and go as they please with – what feels like – no warning. When they do come, it feels as if we have no control over them; like they have taken over our mind and changed both who we are and the physical reality that surrounds us. Negative thoughts have the ability to completely alter our thoughts, feelings, and – ultimately – our actions.
It is no coincidence that everything physical surrounding us seems to go wrong when we are in a bad mood (mental); which most likely correlates with the perception of those who habitually blame other people and things for their counterproductive thoughts, feelings, and actions. For example: people say and do irritating things, traffic is worse, we struggle at work or school, we look ugly in the mirror, our relationships suffer, it is difficult to keep up with our responsibilities, the thought of self-care is impossible because there is no time, our children behave in a way that feels emotionally draining as we are also not being an effective well-rounded & supportive parent because we are burnt out, we experience car troubles, we struggle financially, we have chronic pain, etc.
Sometimes our bad mood can transpire into anger that escalates to the point of self-sabotaging; whether it be self-sabotaging a relationship you have with someone or even self-sabotaging yourself. As it is happening, it feels like we have absolutely no control over ourselves and our current state of anger. We do not stop it as it is happening because either we have identified with it to the point of conviction, we have too much pride to admit that we are wrong and being unjust, or we are too embarrassed to stop it and apologize. And, as a result, we continue to argue and find more ways to escalate our anger toward our target and, instead of moving toward a place of emotional growth and personal development, we intentionally move it into a direction of defensiveness and mayhem. The more the other person tries to make peace with you and exhibits desperation to exit the situation, the angrier you react. As this is happening, your inner voice is telling you that your actions are wrong, but your ego is silencing it; and the more the ego has to silence it, the more out of control your anger gets. All of this occurs only for you to end up feeling like you hate yourself afterwards. You are overwhelmingly embarrassed yet you project as prideful as a coping mechanism to mask your vulnerability and weaknesses. You become so embarrassed and ashamed that you begin to isolate yourself from this person because being around them makes you feel uncomfortable. Until, eventually, the thickness in the air slowly fades with time and things start to feel and become “normal” again. Now you have ultimately managed to pass this entire situation without ever saying you are sorry; without ever demonstrating vulnerability, transparency, humility, and emotional maturity. You move forward in life without ever revealing the personal challenges you have with yourself, the fact that you are aware of your own pathologies, and that you are trying.
Even more unfortunately, some people do not even make it that far. And they go their entire lives still believing that the other person is responsible for their actions (or reactions).
However, our physical reality presents an opposite effect to us and it appears as if things are looking up and everything is going right when we are in a good mood.
When we are in a bad mood, it seems our life has taken a turn for the worse. But do we ever stop and ask ourselves what actually changed? Is it possible that the physical reality that surrounds us changed almost instantly, or is it simply our mindset that has caused an altered perception of our physical reality? It is difficult to accept this concept, especially when we are in a negative state of mind, because it challenges our ego by forcing us to reflect on the possibility that we are responsible for the state of our reality. Unfortunately for a lot of us, when we are in a bad mood, our negative forcefield is so strong that we do not look beyond it unless we possess a strong sense of discipline and control of our own mind; something that most people never seek to achieve.
Some people do not possess the insight to be able to identify negativity as a foreign entity that is trying to take over their potential and, instead, they buy completely into their current emotional state; they are convinced of it. Some of us, however, can identify its presence as intrusive and deviant, but no matter how much we try to talk ourselves out of it, we repeatedly fail to succeed in controlling it. And some of us can identify its presence as well as effectively change it.
For some reason, we consider negative thoughts to be easier to believe than positive thoughts. When negative thoughts enter our minds, we are instantly convinced by it. However, when we are trying to be positive and believe in ourselves, it takes us effort, practice, and sometimes the help of other outside sources. In order to maintain positivity, we have to create better habits, eliminate unhealthy relationships, and immerse ourselves in self-discovery and reflection. Although the payoff is incredibly worthwhile, it takes a lot of effort and hard work on our behalf to get there. On the other hand, negativity seems to take zero effort on our end. We do not have to put forth a lot of effort to be negative, but we try to be positive.
Negativity can take on different forms. Sometimes all it takes is merely waking up in the morning, and for some reason or another, we feel like a completely different person that day; we feel sad, angry, self-critical, and discouraged about ourselves and our life. Sometimes we snap out of this mindset midday, but we mostly have to wait until we wake up the following morning in order to feel like our normal selves again. Other times, negativity can spring up on us after something specific happens that triggers us – or “put us” – in a bad mood. When this happens, we attach ourselves to it; we dwell on it and we allow it to manifest a reality that does not serve us well. This is usually due to the fact that we have unresolved issues from our past that we do not work to resolve in order to gain inner peace and forgiveness for ourselves, and instead we hold on to expired resentment and anger.
Regardless of our “differences” that society tells us of, we are all one in the essence of humanity. One factor that does separate people from others is their level of self-awareness.
It is ironic that the easiest path to take – the path of least resistance and effort on our end – is also the path that makes us feel the most miserable. We have all experienced (and continue to experience) the misery that our perceived reality evokes in us. Some of us are open and honest about these internal experiences but, overall, we tend to hide this “taboo” part of ourselves from others because, even though it is a shared experienced amongst a lot of us, it is not a confession that typically receives a positive reaction from others. Society as a whole puts up a supportive façade yet it is quick to label and judge and, before you know it, you are diagnosed with a mental health disorder and prescribed psychiatric medications that you eventually become to feel dependent upon. Although psychiatric medication may be necessary in some cases, it is not the global cure in its entirety. The majority of people attach themselves to a mental health diagnosis that either someone else prescribed to them or they prescribed to themselves. They depend on their psychiatric medications so deeply that they turn a blind eye to self-reflection, inner work, and personal development; they surrender themselves to the matrix. We take our pills as prescribed and then we go about our day on autopilot: eating processed food, complaining, gossiping, blindly ingesting information received from the media, relying on approval from others in order to feel self-worth, and attaching our happiness to superficial material items.
Food for thought: During difficult times in our life, we trick ourselves into believing that it is permanent; this belief in turn exacerbates the sadness, anxiety, irritability, or anger we are experiencing at that moment. But it is not permanent, and it will never be permanent. Know that time might feel difficult now, but do not allow yourself to be tricked into thinking this is IT. If we stop to think about difficult times we have experienced before – times in which we also thought would be permanent – we will quickly realize that we are looking back at a memory that has passed.
There is just so much to say. I will continue later. Thank you for reading.