Turn your negative thoughts and emotions into positive ones

Turn your negative thoughts and emotions into positive ones by following the four steps that have been outlined below. 

Just a few last words before going on to the next vital post.  Don't try to over analyze what your mind is telling you, because it will only make things worse. Once you become aware that you are having deceptive brain messages you have succeeded with step one. Then go on to step two immediately.

If you over analyze the deceptive brain messages it will hard wire your brain's system and reinforce the path toward more deceptive brain messages. Label the negative thoughts (deceptive brain messages), do something constructive, and then listen to your Wise Advocate.

The negative feelings and emotions may still be there but accept them for what they are - false messages with no real meaning. Accept that these feelings are not who you truly are. Without this acceptance, you will be stuck in a futile and endless loop, trying to make the negative thoughts go away, rather than charting a new course for yourself.

Stay the course.

The Wise Advocate

Negative thinking and negative emotions over an extended period of time can play havoc with the body's entire systems. Illnesses can occur due to the build up of stress hormones that perpetuate themselves throughout the entire nervous, cardiovascular, skeletal, digestive, muscular, endocrine, lymphatic, respiratory and reproductive systems.

Focusing on deceptive brain messages without awareness will only get you into trouble. Awareness is the gateway to seeing the fallacy of the negative thoughts and to making new, healthy connections in the brain.

Trying to get rid of negative thinking by thinking of something else doesn't work, it only buries them in the body where they unconsciously fester and grow into monsters. We must deal with them by being totally aware of them, acknowledging them and accept them for what they are; negative thoughts.

As mentioned in the previous post there are four steps that work very well when dealing with negative thoughts. They are: 1) recognize them, 2) label them, 3) do something constructive and 4) develop a Wise Advocate.  We talked about the first three, now we need to to talk about the fourth step of developing a Wise Advocate.

A Wise Advocate is someone or something that you admire as strong, wise and friendly.  It might be someone like your mother, grandmother, teacher or close friend. It may be Jesus, Buddha, Brahman or God.  Choose your Wise Advocate and when the deceptive negative thoughts occur, and you want to act on them, call on your Wise Advocate and have them talk to you.  Your Wise Advocate may say things like - "I see you are having negative thoughts again.  Are you sure what you are about to do is the wisest thing ?  You know it is just a negative thought don't you? It might be better to wait this thing out and see if there aren't better answers to this situation."

You will get better by accepting that the feelings will still be there but that is a false message with no real meaning. Accept that these thoughts and feelings are not who you truly are. Without this kind of acceptance, you will be stuck in a futile and endless loop, trying to make the negative thoughts go away, rather than charting a new course for yourself based on your true goals and values.

More vital information on the next post.  Have a wonderful day.

Negative emotions cause all kinds of problems for us all.  They cause problems for the person having the emotion and usually for people nearby such as a spouse, friend, relative and so on. The first thing we must do when negative emotions arise is to be able to recognize that we are having a negative emotions.

You may ask; what is a negative emotion? A negative emotion is a thought or a thought process that feeds on itself and makes the thinker act in a negative way. The negative reaction might be internal such as heart beating rapidly, sweating, temperature rising, anger swelling up inside and so on.  Or the negative reaction could be external resulting in harm to one's self or someone else.

According to the book You Are Not Your Brain by Jeffrey Schwaertz, M.D. and Rebecca Gladding, M.D., a good way to overcome negative emotions to follow four steps.  The first step is to recognize you are having a negative thought. That may sound simple but in most cases when negative thoughts arise we get caught up in the thought and the emotions that we think it is the truth and we must do something about it immediately or it will get out of hand. The trick is to back off, as it were, and observe the fact that you are having a negative thought.

The ability to recognize yourself having a negative thought takes practice - practice through meditation, just sitting and focusing on your breathing and noticing thoughts as the come and go. With practice you will eventually be able to observe yourself having negative thoughts. This is the first and foremost step.

The second step is to give the negative thought a label.  What is the thought?  If you are thinking about what is going to happen in the future it is a"fortune telling" thought. If it is a thought that leads to another thought about something that can get worse and another thought as to how things can get even more worse than it is a "catastrophizing" thought.  If the thought is one that says you should do something then it is a "should" thought. "I should do this and I should do that."  Or, "He should be more kind to me or she should not be late all the time."  Should, should, should. As the old saying goes; don't should on yourself so much.

The third step is do something worthwhile that involves some kind of physical activity like walking, biking, yoga, etc. The body and the mind are inexorably linked.  When the body gets moving the mind automatically focuses on the body to some degree or another; it has to.  This helps take the pressure off negative thinking.

The fourth step is to develop a "Wise Advocate."  This is the subject on the next blog.  Stay tuned. 

When I wear a shirt or some other garment with the OM symbol

I invariably have someone ask me what it means.

The symbol is a Sanskrit term and it is said to be the essence of speech. The sound of OM or AUM is said to be the sound of the universe and when sung is composed of three syllagles combined into one.
"Aaaoooummm."

 The symbol consists of three curves, one semicircle, and a dot. The three curves represent the three stages of consciousness; the lower curve is awake, the upper curve is deep sleep, and the tail-like curve represents dreaming sleep.  It is said that these are the three states of consciousness.

The semicircle above the consciousness curves represents maya  (illusion). In other words, the three states of consciousness are merely an illusion. The dot above maya represents God or the Absolute.  So, when you get rid of the illusion (maya) that you are consciousness you become one with God. This union is achieved through the practice of yoga.

Err on the side of caution.

One of my yoga students has glaucoma in one eye. He went to the doctor and they gave him eye drops and his eye pressure drastically went down and a blood vessel exploded and filled the eyeball with blood.  Right now he is "temporarily" blind in that eye.  He asked if I thought it might help if he were to apply a warm, wet towel on the eye.  I told him that he should ask his doctor about that.

As yoga teachers we should know our limitations when it comes to therapeutic practices and recommendations. As you probably know, there are different levels of knowledge and skill when it comes to yoga teaching.  Yoga Alliance ( https://www.yogaalliance.org/ ) has various levels of registered yoga teacher (RYT) such as RYT-200, RYT-500, ERYT-200, and so on.  They even have a registered therapy yoga teacher. Even if you are a therapy yoga teacher there are limitations in what you should do as far helping students.

If it is beyond your knowledge it is best to always err on the side of caution and recommend they go see a specialist.  Never let your ego get in the way of good judgement.  That's my recommendation.

I have neglected posting here for quite some time and I am sorry.  I have been busy teaching and working with disabled people for a few years but am now back and ready to start talking about pure awareness again.

I hope you have been working with meditation and practicing staying in the moment, for those are the primary steps for getting to the higher state of consciousness of pure awareness. It is very difficult for most of us to stay in the moment, even for a few minutes, due to distractions and the like. That is where meditation comes in.

Meditation encourages the mind and even the body to relax into the state of awareness.  Awareness is the fourth level of consciousness.  If you remember, the five states of consciousness are: 1) waking sleep, 2) absorption, 3) attention, 4) awareness and 5) pure awareness.

Being aware while meditating means that both the mind and body are in complete awareness.  In other words, the mind is not thinking about the past or the future and the body is relaxed.  The body may be itching or aching here and there but the mind is fully aware of those sensations and the body may make adjustments to ease those feelings. Also, the mind as well as the body may have emotions but they are here, right now, in the moment.

So, continue on with your meditation and please keep in touch.  I will be posting more in the near future.

Namaste'
Neil Crenshaw