“Encourage yourself by remembering that any detection of negativity within you is a positive act, not a negative one. Awareness of your weakness and confusion makes you strong because conscious awareness is the bright light that destroys the darkness of negativity. Honest self-observation dissolves pains and pressures that formerly did their dreadful work in the darkness of unawareness. This is so important that I urge you to memorize and reflect upon the following summary: Detection of inner negativity is not a negative act, but a courageously positive act that makes you a new person.” — Vernon Howard
The quote above is from Vernon Howard’s The Power of Your Supermind, and it helped me reframe my thoughts. Instead of this negative thought being about ME being a terrible person, it’s about ME being a good detective and taking notice of this thought.
Negative thoughts course through me at any given point in the day. They may be about a person, an event that just happened, or random observations of things I don’t like. In the past, I’ve fought these negative thoughts by noticing them, telling them to shut up, and then trying to ignore them, pretending they don’t exist.
Dr. Wayne W. Dryer in Excuses Begone! says,
Living your life oblivious to your thinking patterns and beliefs, day after day, year after year, is a habit that encourages and elevates your ego or false self.
It’s compounding, unchecked negative thinking that spreads through us like cancer. I will no longer be oblivious to these thoughts but instead receive them as the gift they are: opportunities to interrogate them, ask if they are true or false, and check to see if they align with who I want to be and who I was created to be. If not, kill it or take action not to let it harm me, but drive me towards resolution and peace.