What is meant by negative thinking? A negative thought is any thought of failure, disappointment, or trouble; any thought of criticism, or spite, or jealousy, or condemnation of others, or self-condemnation; any thought of sickness or accident; or, in short, any kind of limitation. In practice you will never have any trouble in knowing whether a given thought is positive or negative. Even if your brain tries to deceive you, your heart will whisper the truth.
Second, you must be quite clear that what this scheme calls for is that you shall not dwell upon negative things. It is not the thoughts that come to you that matter, but only such of them as you choose to entertain and dwell upon. Many negative thoughts will come to you all day long. Some will be given to you by other people, or you will hear disagreeable news. These things, however, do not matter so long as you do not entertain them. An analogy is furnished by the case of a man who is sitting by an open fire when a red-hot cinder flies out and falls on his sleeve. If he blows that cinder off at once, without a moment’s delay to think about it, no harm is done. But if he allows it to rest on him for a single moment, under any pretense, the mischief is done, and it will be a troublesome task to repair that sleeve. So it is with a negative thought.
Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. (Acts 8:22).
People often find that the starting of this seven-day mental diet seems to stir up difficulties. It seems as though everything begins to go wrong at once. This may be disconcerting, but it is really a good sign. Suppose your whole world seems to rock on its foundations. Hold on steadily, let it rock, and when the rocking is over, the picture will have reassembled itself into something much nearer to your heart’s desire.
Do not tell anyone else that you are on a diet. Remember that your soul should be the Secret Place of the Most High. When you have secured your new mentality, then tell the story to anyone else whom you think is likely to be helped by it.
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation (Joel 1:3).
The negative thoughts most difficult to flick off are the ones that keep coming back time after time or that come so fast and furious that we can’t flick them off. In both cases, the wise man sitting by the fire might consider moving his chair. Sitting too close to the fire or downwind from it exposes us to much smoke and many cinders. When we are in the wrong place, or doing the wrong thing we expose ourselves unnecessarily to negative thoughts and environments. When we find ourselves overwhelmed with negative thoughts, the problem likely lies in our own words thoughts and deeds. Some examples of attitudinal mis-positioning are self-righteousness, self-pity and self-recrimination. When we are choking on the smoke of ingratitude, condemnation or feeling sorry for ourselves, we can expect the embers of negativity to fall on us without relief.
When me move our mental chairs into the clear air of gratitude, tolerance and empathy, we will be upwind form the smoke and the fire of negativity. Then we can breathe easier and spend more time growing hope and less time stomping out fires in our gardens.
Breathing easier?
Peace,
Z gardener
Good Morning Garden 