By acting as if you are a certain type of person, you become that person. If you act like a happy person, there is every chance that you will be happy. We are born pure. We are made of love. Fear and negativity are things that we pick up along our journey on earth. Negativity becomes a problem with many people. Anything and everything can trigger negativity in us. We do not like our boss, and we become negative. We disagree with our spouse on something and we become negative. We do not like a comment from our neighbor, and we become negative. The list goes on. Sometimes we become negative, because a friend didn’t call us or even for no reason at all.
Negativity becomes almost a habit. Most of us know that this is not how we want us to be. 
Most people seek to escape from their own negativity. But most do not know the way out. People often say, “I don’t know how to stop myself from thinking negatively.” . A common mistake we often make is to identify with the negative thoughts running through our minds. We should not identify with our thoughts. Identification with our thoughts makes us blame ourselves and does not serve our purpose.
We are Not Our Thoughts
Then what should we do? We should recognize the negative thoughts going through our mind. But at the same time we should remember that those thoughts are not us. Just as the food we eat is not us, the thoughts we feed our minds with are not us. When we become more conscious, we can lift us up to the point that we are able to replace those thoughts with thoughts of beneficial or positive nature. We have the power to recondition our thoughts. We are pure consciousness through which thoughts keep flowing.
Thoughts are Food for the Mind
Although your thoughts are not you, repeating the same thoughts over and over again conditions your mind to think in a specific pattern. Just as our foods are responsible to make or destroy our body, our thoughts can make or destroy our minds. If you want a healthy body, you will give it foods that are wholesome and nutritious, and avoid junk foods that are toxic and unhealthy. If one feeds the body with stimulants or drugs, the body will gradually be habituated with the same, and after a while it will crave for that, though it is unhealthy. Just the same way cherishing negative pattern of thoughts will eventually create a negative mindset; on the contrary, a healthy mind can be formed by entertaining wholesome thoughts.
The Vicious Cycle of Negative Thinking
Negative thinking is very much addictive in nature. If you go on holding on to negative thoughts, your mind will crave for those negative thoughts, on which it feeds itself. A specific neural pathway will be formed in your brain that will make your nerve cells habituated to negative thought patterns that can even become obsessive. This becomes a vicious cycle. Negative thoughts breed more such thoughts and it becomes very difficult to escape from this trap. Anyone stuck in such negative thinking patterns knows it well. It becomes almost impossible to come out.
Identification Perpetuates Negativity
The situation becomes worse as people unconsciously identify with their thoughts. This unconscious identification perpetuates the situation. If thinking negative thoughts, blaming yourself for it and the effort to stop it comes from the same spot of identification. Think about this. They are part of the same mind, which created the problem in the first place. If you are caught in this problem, the solution begins as you become more conscious and dis-identify from the thoughts.
Becoming Conscious is the Solution
Instead of resisting the negative thoughts, first become conscious of them. Acknowledge that they are there in your mind. Whenever, you acknowledge the presence of negative thoughts in your mind, you actually raise yourself to a higher level of consciousness. Stop fighting. Become an observer, just as you observe the cars running in the street.
Breath Out the Negative Thoughts
In the Book “Awakening Inner Guru”, this powerful practice is described along with many other techniques to tackle negative thoughts and emotions. Take a deep breath and as you breathe out, feel that you release the negative emotion with the long outgoing breath. Repeat the process, with your attention focussed on the outgoing breath. Within a short time, you will feel much relief. Replacing negative thoughts with positive and constructive ones also helps.
Develop Understanding
Our life always reflects back to us what the contents of our consciousness are. The contents of our consciousness make our experiences. Whatever we are experiencing now is the result of our past thoughts. If we are conscious to create and cherish positive thoughts, we can develop positive life experiences. Otherwise, your own creative energy turns against yourself. It is because negative thoughts make negative Karma, just as positive thoughts make positive Karma. This understanding helps to banish negativity from our life.
Negativity need not be a permanent pattern that one needs to accept helplessly. We always have the freedom to choose positive thoughts, forgiveness, grace and light. It is not always easy, but it is surely worth trying. We can come out of negative thinking, only when we are conscious. We can do that when we accept the responsibility of our lives. We can do that when we acknowledge that, if we are unhappy, we have created it. When we acknowledge that, we can stop blaming and stay focused on what we want, instead of grumbling about what went wrong. It is tremendously empowering and liberating when we are successful in banishing negativity completely from our lives.
Reference: Awakening Inner Guru By Banani Ray & Amit Ray
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