Thinking Optimistically
Question:
Hi Adam,
I have an every day struggle, like a lot of people, with seeing the good in a bad situation. I am at that point where there is no hope for the light at the end of the tunnel. My problem with that is that I know I should be thinking, or analyzing, my situations differently. Knowing this, I still find myself thinking negatively. For myself, I feel that I give out a lot of negative energy and defeat.
My question is how do I start being more positive in any situation that I find myself in?
Response:
Hi,
Perhaps you could stop trying to be positive rather than negative, and instead let yourself be negative. What happens if you fully allow yourself to feel however you feel, without trying to feel differently?
(Comment below if you have any response.)
Comments for Thinking Optimistically
(from previous website)
Aug 18, 2015
Predetermined (Will of God)
by: Chris
To
Adam,
Is there a possibility that if we are having negative thoughts around a situation or a person and we try everything including acceptance,mindfulness etc,but still it is just as it is without any improvement as we hope for (especially i have anxiety / fear and also painbody out of fear/helplessness in work situation), that it might be meant to be that way, so that will of the universe have to happen anyway.
If everything including the falling of a raindrop on my head at a particular space and time is already predetermined ,then what i feel now negative/positive/fear etc just have to be that way ,and then there is no use in blaming ourselves for not able to think positive or not able to get the thoughts about a person out of my mind, and if we blame that was also supposed to be there, and from tomorrow if you feel less prone to blame ourselves and others,that might also be all predetermined.
Negative thoughts probably arise with the presence of negative energies in the body,and if it is not leaving me ,is/was it supposed to be there ?
Aug 18, 2015
Response To Chris
by: Adam - InnerPeaceNow.com
Hi Chris,
You mentioned that there may not be an improvement that you hope for. So if there is some kind of acceptance with the hope of some kind of improvement, then it is not an absolute acceptance. An absolute acceptance, or a dropping of resistance would mean that you would not expect or hope for the energies inside to change. It is just a surrender to Life. But this is not something to be done personally. If it becomes all about "me" accepting things, then the personal nature of it all just creates or sustains more resistance.
But what you say can be very helpful. Take all of it as the will of the universe, and not your responsibility to change or improve on.
Is there not a space that this is all arising within? Are you any of the objects or content in the space?
Aug 18, 2015
To be what we are
by: ajay
Hi Adam,
I am thankful to you for your insightful guidance. What you have said is of immense importance. We have to be what we are without trying to be this or that. If we are in a bad mood we should not fight that feeling, instead we have to accept/embrace those feeling. The little mistake we commit to our reaction to the feeling leads us to deep inner turmoil which can be avoided.
Aug 19, 2015
Commenting From an Understanding
by: Chris
To Adam,
Thanks for the reply comment.
There is an ego happening or a body / mind just happening as any other objects (tree/leaves etc) and as I am intellectually understanding that true total acceptance is a absolute clear recognition of this fact and that there is no one bearing a body/mind or an ego but just a body/mind/ego as it is happening.
But such a total acceptance and recognition is a shift which is just dropping of illusion of a person/doer and for that awakening/enlightenment must happen right ?
In some teachings as i have read books of someone who tells as if ego is the problem, it is the mind that creates the problem and people try desperately like conscious attention etc and that could just increase the burden trying to drop ego or may be I understood them wrongly(but i understand that also is part of what has to happen)
Maybe enlightenment is always there and somewhere someone recognizes it for sure.
Aug 20, 2015
SO NICE
by: RSB
THE DISCUSSION ON THIS WAS REALLY HELPFUL. My thanks to Chriss and Ajay