As we hear the word mindfulness, most of us think that it is hard and it is something that we have to practice following a specific guideline by sitting in a cross legged position closing our eyes. But in reality it is not true and as complicated as it sounds, it gets a lot easier, but obviously with some practice and consistency. It simply means paying attention to your thoughts, whether it be positive or negative.
We all experience every types of emotions in our everyday lives. Some emotions are positive that brings us happiness and joy and some emotions are negative that makes us sad and unhappy. Positive emotions lifts our spirit, gives us energy, motivates us whereas negative emotions drains our energy making us feel demotivated, unhappy and helpless. As a human being we are greatly bestowed by the gift of imagination. This can be one of the greatest gifts if we use it correctly to think, observe our thoughts and emotions, create new ideas, solve problems, to learn and to grow and it can also be one of the greatest curse if we do not use it correctly by overthinking, causing psychological stress, developing toxic attitude and behaviors leading to unhappy life, diseases and illnesses.
Obviously I am also not immune to experience negative emotions in my day to day life but I have started paying attention to my thoughts by becoming mindful and aware of them. Often times I catch myself dwelling in those negative thoughts that makes me sad, anxious and hopeless. During those times, it just feels like this sadness or those negative emotions are never ending. One after another these waves of negativity arises like a vicious cycle. I hope it is like this for everyone when we are dealing with some unpleasant situations or experiences and sometimes unknowingly those negative emotions keep lingering in our subconscious mind. But this does not mean we should never let any negative emotions come to our mind but we can observe those thoughts by not reacting to them and not being attached to them and slowly letting them go. One of the greatest tips I have learned is from Michael Alan Singer, author of “The Untethered Soul” where he says to see the negative emotions like pain, anger, frustration simply as energy. Whenever these emotions arise we need to let them pass through us by relaxing and releasing, rather than resisting it . Each time when negativity takes over my mind, I always try to observe those thoughts, let them come and I just let myself relax with deep inhalation as those energy or voices passes through my heart and consciousness and I silently observe them without reacting to them and I slowly let them release with deep exhalation. This practice has brought a lot of positivity in my behaviors and attitude. Releasing such deep negative feelings from our heart and slowly letting them pass as a wind brings so much freedom and liberation and growth in our personal lives rather than holding onto them that will cause so much disturbance in our inner world and hinders self-growth.
Everything that we consume in our everyday life , whether it be our thoughts, our surroundings, type of people we hang out with, TV shows that we watch, social media accounts that we follow stays unknowingly in our subconscious mind. People talk a lot about paying attention to your diet and eating healthy but they rarely talk about paying attention to what you feed to your brain and mind which is one of the most important aspect for a healthy and happy life. Now I am really aware of my thoughts and I try to be really careful of what information, thoughts and emotions I am feeding to my brain. Every time some negativity arises I ask myself, ” is this helping me to learn something to be a better version of myself or is it something that drains my energy and fills me with negativity?”, and I slowly let those thoughts drift away if those negative emotions brings the worst out of me . Being mindful of our thoughts, being grateful for all the good things in our life, not complaining about things we do not have, having a positive mindset brings a huge transformation in our thinking and brings a lot of joy, happiness and peace and helps to find our inner self and our purpose in life as well as frees ourselves of limiting beliefs that is deeply rooted in everyone of us. So next time you go through these negative emotions, simply learn to observe them and be aware of them and ask yourself if they are helping you to be a better version of yourself or is it bringing unhappiness and inhibiting yourself to grow. Another great lesson that I have learned is from the book “The Biology of Belief” , by Bruce H. Lipton where he says “when we change the way we perceive the world, that is , when we change our beliefs, we change the blood`s neurochemical composition, which then initiates a complementary change in the body` s cells. You can chose to see the world full of love and your body will respond by growing in health and you can chooses to believe that you live in a dark world full of fear, anger and frustration then your body` s health will be compromised as you physiologically close yourself down in a protection response. So learning to harness our mind and thoughts to promote growth is the secret of a healthy and happy life”. And as Gandhi said, Your belief becomes your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values and Your values become your destiny. Therefore, always remember you are not the manager of your situation and circumstances but you are the creator of your own life and destiny and you can take full control of creating that life which you have always wanted to live and dreamed for yourself.