Recently in a forum, someone asked “Do you get tired of the negative thoughts that are generated by the ego? What would your life be like if you listened to the love in your heart instead?” I got to thinking about these questions, and realized there are two kinds of negative thoughts; those we generate and those we pick up on.

That’s because we are part of a larger field of awareness called “the collective unconscious,” ruled by Neptune. We all live and experience our lives in this collective field where countless thoughts and feelings exist. That field holds all the collective triumphs and tragedies of humanity, all the joys and sorrows ever felt by any human being. And yes, that field holds many negative thoughts and feelings.

That’s why I answered, “Sometimes the negative thoughts you're picking up on are not generated by your ego. They are in the collective consciousness, and being units of receptivity, we naturally pick up on the various thought forms polluting the collective. It's often an unconscious mental habit.

The trick is to observe them and not identify with them. That creates volition and overrides reflexive elements in the subconscious mind. Listening to the heart requires a certain commitment, and the results are beyond the best we can imagine before we do it.”

Of course, in the process of “not identifying” with negative thoughts, we must examine whether they have arisen from within as a result of our thinking about something, or if they simply appeared for no apparent reason in our mind. That helps us figure out if we’re generating the negativity, or if we’re just feeling or thinking or verbalizing some random negativity “in the air.”

Just because we’re aware of negative thoughts doesn’t mean we’re generating them. We may or may not be the generators of negativity. We are always sending and receiving impressions on the subtle levels of the energetic field in which we live and breathe. However, as we practice detachment, dispassion, and discernment we discover the inner sources of negativity and can turn them to more positive thoughts, feelings, and deeds. There is a discipline which easily helps us to catch negative responses before they arise so we can be more consciously positive in our responses which I’ll write about in another article.

While we always need to own our own negative responses, it is equally true that “the best way to fight evil is to make progress in the good.” Because our true nature is loving wise intelligence we can always BE those qualities, regardless of the random thoughts of our personality or those we’re picking up on which pollute the collective field.

Even when we confront negative people saying negative things, we can still turn the energy to better directions. I tend to redirect conversations into more productive areas, since griping and criticizing for their own sake is just wheel spinning by the pessimistic mind. When dealing with a negative person, I always ask myself “what is my buy-in with this negativity, and why am I not moving in a more positive direction?” That helps me get clear about my level of attachment to the negativity. No one needs to indulge negativity for one second longer than it takes to turn negative thinking into positive thinking.

We all know narrow minded pessimists are a drag. I’ve found that all negative thinking is related to fear. That’s why there’s so much of it. Fear is one of the four primal emotions hardwired into the human condition, and the source of 10,000 ways of suffering. Getting rid of the fear response is one of the most important things we can do to improve our lives and enlarge our awareness and heart strengths.

It’s hard enough for us to deal with our own learned negative responses; it’s impossible to make someone else not be negative if they insist on being negative. If another won't shift their perspective and attempt a more positive view, there's nothing we can do except let them know when it’s too much of a downer and tell them we’ll call later. We don’t have to endure another’s suffering for any longer than we are able, since we have our own lessons to learn about the limits of loyalty and disinterestedness.

I realized that in my experience, asking friends to change the discussion to something more upbeat shouldn't be a big deal. And if someone is intent on getting defensive about their negativity then it may be beyond our pay grade to help them in that moment. While there's certainly a lot "not to like" right now (as well as in the general human condition!), either we can do something about it or we can't. If we can't, then we need to redirect our focus to more positive efforts we can do something about.

While we cannot change how another thinks, we can always change how we think, and how we respond in the face of negative people and experiences, as well as when we see negative thoughts, feelings, and actions arise from within us. While it is difficult in the beginning, over time it becomes easy to shift internal negative tendencies into positive actions. That technique is the subject of the next article.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

© Copyright 2022 Robert Wilkinson

© 2022 crystalwind.ca. All rights reserved.