From time to time, we let experiences in our lives affect us too negatively. They catch us off guard, the mental pictures from those experiences repeat themselves in our minds, and we feel disheartened or worried about them all day, all week, all month or even longer in extreme cases.
These negative emotions can cause detrimental changes to the biochemistry of our bodies by releasing stress hormones. These stress hormones can slow down our rate of digestion, cause our blood pressure to rise, weaken our hearts, cause life-threatening diseases, and accelerate the signs of aging. According to some scientists, ongoing negative trauma can even alter the genes in our DNA causing adverse affects in our offspring two generations down.
What a heavy price to pay for something that is already torturous enough! But what if there was an effective way to stop negative thoughts from causing such inordinate damage to us? What if there was a practical way to stop negative thoughts from repeating themselves indefinitely? Keep reading and you’ll find the answer to those questions.
Negative thoughts and emotions give life to each other
In the renowned book, Mental Chemistry by Charles F. Haanel, Haanel explained the inexorable affect that our thoughts have on our emotions by comparing emotions to the fluidity of water. Suppose you have a tub of water and you stir that water in a circular motion. If you stir long enough and with enough force, that water will have enough force behind it to temporarily move whatever you’re stirring it with. And it will be noticeably difficult to stir that water in the opposite direction because of the initial resistance caused by the ongoing momentum.
Your emotions are like flowing water and your thoughts stir them toward the direction of either positivity or negativity. The intensity and the rate at which you repeat a thought determines the intensity and the strength of the emotion that correlates with it. And the more forceful your emotions flow in a particular direction, the stronger the initial resistance when you try to change the direction of that movement by thinking opposing thoughts.
Undoubtedly, you have heard that positive thinking will change negative emotions to positive emotions. And undoubtedly, you have tried this approach and it didn’t always work for you as well as you hoped. That is because the momentum of those negative emotions is too strong because of the constant punctuation of negative subconscious thoughts that are continually giving power to them.
Positive thinking will change the physical composition of your mind over time and should obviously be taken seriously. But it will not stop the cycle of negative thoughts and emotions as immediately as another approach will.
“Stop thinking, and end your problems.” — Lao Tzu
The most practical action you could possibly take to resolve this issue is to simply stop thinking. When you’re already in a negative frame of mind, you’re going to have the natural inclination to think along the same lines that those emotions are guiding you. You may think that trying to rationalize your problems while in this frame of mind will increase your understanding of them, but this approach will only lead to you feeling worse about yourself because you’d be focusing on your problems while negative emotions have their influence over you.
So break this cycle by stopping your thoughts entirely until this negative feeling goes away. With nothing to feed them, those negative emotions will gradually lose their strength like water that has ceased to be actuated.
If you do this, you will experience a new level of mental freedom.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Tim,
The water example is a great way of looking at this! Once the negative emotions have gathered steam, they sure can be hard to stop. I’m thinking of one time in particular – a while ago now – that brought up a bunch of negative thoughts for me. And you’re right – the more I tried to focus on the good, the bad just stuck around. It wasn’t until I finally just let it all go that it got better (and more positive).
Lance´s last blog ..A World Filled With Wonder
Thanks for the reply, Lance. The exact same thing happened to me a while back when I would try to think positive while I was feeling down about something. As long as I felt that emotion strongly, whatever I thought about would always inevitably lead to thoughts that are on the same frequency as that emotion.
But in later incidents, just by shutting off my thinking altogether and focusing on something more enjoyable, I started to feel relieved in a couple of minutes.
All of that seems to make perfect sense once we just sit back and observe how our minds work.
Thanks for stopping by.
I find that focusing on what I am grateful for will stop me from the negative thinking. You cant always change the negative situation so you need to remove yourself from it emotionally.
I agree that if you think negatively it is hard to stop them but on the other hand if you get in the practice of gratitude and finding joy in small things it can also be hard to stop
Great point, Julia. I noticed that negative emotions seem to emerge from a feeling of victim mentality and a mental resistance (or lack of acceptance) to our surroundings. Focusing on the things that we have to be thankful for instead of focusing only on what we don’t have is a pivotal example of looking at the glass half-full.
Nice article Tim. Great analogy on positive thinking, positive emotions, negative thinking, and negative emotions. I never thought about dealing with thoughts and emotions such that of the flow of water and it’s momentum.
Tristan Lee´s last blog ..Respect: Follow Through With Your Words
Thank you, Tristan. Apparently, this analogy has been around for at least a hundred years. I’m pretty sure this has been touched upon in Eastern Philosophy as well. It really goes to show how much knowledge is out there that many of us aren’t aware of—yet.
I agree – “The most practical action you could possibly take to resolve this issue is to simply stop thinking” once you find yourself on a path of thinking negatively I like to switch to something different or just remind myself of the positive issues.
Thinking negatively is a point of view you can either accept or deny just as thinking positively is.
If you had a friend that kept making negative comments or pointing out the downside of every action you would soon start to spend less time with them.
Great point, Sean. There’s no need to accept the point of view of negative thinking because those thoughts probably aren’t true in the first place.
An important question we need to ask ourselves is whether we spend more time thinking negatively or thinking positively. If we spend more time thinking negatively, we always have the power to distance ourselves from those thoughts.
Graet article i agree with what you are saying
Thank you, Herbert. I appreciate the reply.
Ah negativity, I wish we could get away with it. But it is a fact of existence and whether we like it or not, we have to deal with it. To allow negative thinking has been our propensity, in fact our habit. I believe we must go beyond its grasp, being positive is not without the absence of the negative.
If we embrace negativity, it will lose its power over us.
Thanks for taking the time to reply, Walter. It’s true that positive emotions usually exist because of the absence of negative emotions and vice versa. If we take a close observation of what we are thinking and feeling at the present moment, we gain more control over ourselves.
Everything in universe is important. Good or Bad, Positive or Negative, Discovered or Undiscovered. Only we should know the quantity to be used at the right moment for the right cause. Positivity has a great impact for growth but in abundance it serves’ as negativity. Sometimes a small amount of negativity serves the purpose of bringing out positivity.
I don’t yet know if I can say this boldly. But this thought is nagging me. I have some examples but still do not know if I can state this as a fact.
Great article and a great explanation!
How do you stop thinking completely?
Basically, it means to stop consciously thinking for a brief period of time. A few thoughts might slip by but they will start to slow down pretty gradually.
Some people call this meditation or a way of reaching spiritual enlightenment but the principle is the pretty much the same—stop consciously thinking for a short while and let your mind relax.