“The Fifth Step is
the key to freedom.
It allows us to live clean
in the present. Sharing
the exact nature of our
wrongs sets us free
to live.” (The Basic
Text, p. 31, on freeing our thoughts)
FREEDOM !!! Jean Batiste (3:42)
Freedom Behind Bars: Meditation in Prison
Om Namo Mantra & Freedom from Bad Thoughts Meditation (9:12)
Which “persistent thought(s)” would you like to be freed from, lately?
7 ways to remove negative thoughts :
COURTESY : http://srisriravishankar.org
1.Get Busy
When you recognize a negative thought, get busy. If you simply sit, you will keep thinking a lot.
2. Improve circulation in your body
If your head is filled with too many thoughts, lie down on the floor and keep rolling and you will see the circulation in the body improves. When circulation improves then the mind feels better. That is the reason they do shayana pradakshinam (a form of worship done by rolling on the floor). Experience it and see how there is a change in your mind.
3. Shake hands with negative a thought
If you keep resisting negative thoughts and try to push them away, then they will follow you like a ghost. Shake hands with your negative thoughts. Tell them, ‘Come here and sit with me. I will not leave you’ and you will see how they quickly disappear. Thoughts are scared of you.
If you get scared of a negative thought then they will control you. But if you shake hands with them, then they will disappear.
4. Pranayama and Meditation
Pranayama and Meditation is the best way to apply brakes in the buzzing mind.
It is very effective and instantly calms your mind down.
5. 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.
6. Move Around
Get up, do your exercise, sing, dance, do yoga, meditation, pranayama. All these will help.
7. Become a witness to your thoughts
You cannot stop a thought or know a thought before it comes. And when it comes, it also goes away immediately. If you are 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. Thought(s) come and go, but that which is the basis of thought(s) – is the atma (soul). And that is what you are. You are like the sky and thought(s) 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 the clouds, when you go beyond the clouds, you see that the sky is untouched. It is the same, it is unchanged. It is only the thought(s) which keep moving. This is what happens in meditation. When you come into Sakshi bhaav, i.e., when you simply become a witness to the thought(s).
We do not have to attach ourselves to the thought(s). That is foolishness. Whether they are good thoughts or bad thoughts – they come and go. You are far above and beyond all this. This is called the Vihangam Maarg. It means rising above thoughts and seeing that you have nothing to do with these moving thoughts.
I don’t know what i’m thinking sometimes! My thoughts consist of insecurity, mostly from the things that I don’t have, I compare myself to others and also try to acknowledge that my thoughts don’t define me and that what everyone else thinks about me is none of my business. I also believe that my thoughts can manipulate me into a belief system if i’m unwilling to bounce my ideas off someone I can trust, meaning sudden impulse can occur, causing me to act on those thoughts or feel some type of way.
Some of the most tortured souls are the most creative. The mother of invention is necessity and what makes you needy like desperation. Allow your struggle to become your strength.
Today I have none. However some that are reaccuring are thoughts of being alone.
The thought that I’m what I do is never good enough. Sometimes I have to recognize that some of what I do is very valuable and much appreciated and critiquing it death is counterproductive.