Adelaide Shiva Yoga Meditation Centre
What Are You Thinking?

Everyone is prone to negative thinking - yours or someone else's. But it's a true yogi who actually investigates it and works to overcome the tendency. Among the priorities in your life, how important is your well being? Why not challenge yourself by looking into your state of mind?

Negative thought. Where does it come from? How can you be peacefully relaxed in a yoga posture and the next moment agitated about an imaginary dialogue? Or the yoga teacher suggests you go deeper into an asana and suddenly you can't do that pose to your satisfaction. What's more, you will never be able to do yoga, or get that new job or promotion, or negotiate quiet time at home when you don't have to do hours of chores, or make do with the money you have, or . . . .

How tricky the mind is! How easy it is to talk yourself down and fall into irritation, worry or sadness. And how can you break through a cycle of negativity? A number of yoga practices can help you become aware of negative thought, dissolve it and maintain the space of calm.

Self-Talk

It is the nature of the mind to talk. Take a moment right now to pay attention to your mind. Even as you read this article, your mind might be protesting, trying to distract you or get you to do something else. In a minute it might flood you with associations, ideas, potential actions or simple comments.

Self-talk is the running commentary of the mind. Thousands of impressions, images, information, memories, and plans constantly arise in the realm of the mind. As you focus on your mind, you might notice words, phrases, concepts, stories or major strategies.

These are all strung together by an inner voice. What is your inner voice right now? It might be mild-mannered, fairly quiet and open in this moment. As the mind flits from one thought stream to another, likewise, your inner voice can change. For example, you could start a conversation as a sympathetic listener and move into any of a broad range of internal voices from a whimpering victim to a self-righteous moralizer or a nurturing friend.

The whole being responds to the content and tone of self-talk. Someone slumped over a desk is not thinking encouraging thoughts with an uplifting voice. Whereas, someone engaged in the flow of fruitful activity most likely is.

Feelings Arise

Thought carries energy and feeling. Consider a simple statement: There's a lot of traffic. This can be a statement of fact that is entirely neutral. It also can carry feelings of worry and frustration, which can trigger other negative thoughts and a loss of energy. The statement could also bring relief (I'm so glad we're going in the opposite direction), which may bring other positive thoughts and increase energy.

Here's where yoga comes in: awareness. Most people are at the mercy of outer events. They act and react to the environment, other people, family, friends, challenges and issues with two things in mind: to get what they want and to push away what they don't want.

The yogic practice of mindfulness or being aware allows us to remain in the present moment and notice everything that is happening in the outer world as well as what is happening in the inner world. It provides information on what kinds of thoughts and feelings are arising. We can notice whether we are acting out of the impulse of our own thinking or responding appropriately to what is actually happening.

Contemplation: Thinking It Through

It's wonderful when you can relax at the end of a yoga class or meditate with a still mind. But when you can't, your mind might be fixated on a specific issue. Rather than letting it follow random trains of thought or spin imaginary dialogues, try a different approach.
  • Notice if your mind is looking for validation of your point of view. Does it seek other people to agree? You could even ask your mind if it will rest when it has three people who agree, or five, or ten. How often have you told the story of the issue to someone else or heard your mind play it over and over? These are symptoms of negative thinking.
  • Tell your mind that you are listening and that you won't judge yourself harshly. Quietly ask it to tell you what it wants. Ask: Is there something I can do? Is there another way of thinking of this? Do I need to forgive myself or another person? Can I let go? What will move me forward?
  • Continue this line of inquiry in quiet contemplation or meditation until you open to a deeper understanding. Then inquire again and again until you find resolution.
Negative Mind

At its best the mind is calm and open to new information from all spheres: physical sensations, mental constructs and emotional responses. When it is positive, the mind is clear, strong, decisive and trustworthy. This state of mind reverberates throughout your life. When your mind is relaxed and positive, your body feels good, your prospects are hopeful and even your past has been rewarding.

At its worst, however, the mind turns against itself and becomes filled with self-criticism, self-hatred and negative comparisons. These manifest as statements that unfortunately arise too often: I am not good enough, strong enough, tall enough, thin enough, clever enough. I am not lovable. I am worthless. I will never amount to anything . . . .

Swami Shankarananda calls these thoughts that tear into you, tearing thoughts. In Consciousness Is Everything: The Yoga of Kashmir Shaivism, he says, ‘In your awareness, when you have tearing thoughts, when your mind is filled with negative self-talk, your whole being shrinks. You become disempowered. If you are an athlete, you make a bad shot. If you are looking for a job, you will give a bad interview. When your mind is filled with buoyant thoughts, uplifting thoughts, positive thoughts, you will be good at whatever you are doing. You will get the job, you will be successful. So in our interior world language can move in these two directions. It can move downwards towards suffering, or it can move upwards towards expansion and joy.'

Everyone is plagued by negative thinking. Sometimes it seems as though the mind goes to the negative as a kind of default or base line. Self-talk is often filled with jealousy, remorse and nagging. But it doesn't need to be. The mind can equally be filled with thoughts that are supportive and filled with harmony, clarity and pleasant feeling. Why does it matter? Simply, negative thinking reverberates in impulsive action, physical tension and emotional stress. It affects relationships, work, health and connection with our innermost being. Which thoughts do you prefer your mind to focus on, and are you prepared to make the effort to change habitual negative thought patterns?  

Contemplation: Identifying Negative Thinking

Here's where you need to be honest with yourself. Consider the moments when you are most upset emotionally, or catch yourself the next time you experience negativity.
  • See if you can identify the feeling: aggravation, sorrow, being a victim, fear or agitation-whatever you actually feel. Allow yourself to feel the feeling and identify it without admonishing yourself that you shouldn't feel that way.
  • Follow the feeling to what you are actually telling yourself. Even if you are angry with someone else's behaviour, find out how it is about you: I wish I had been smart enough to anticipate this happening. I always mess things up. I'm inadequate.
  • Over time, identify your personal negative statements that arise at times of difficulty. Whenever they appear, notice them, but don't believe them: they are not valid. By finding out what your negative statements are you are well on your way to conquering them.
Uplifting Your Point of View

Once you identify your own negative thinking, how do you temper it? Certainly at times it is extremely difficult. Yet, if you make the effort, over time you will be able to notice when your negative mind and specifically what you are telling yourself. Then you are able to make other choices. Here are a few techniques.

Warding Off Negative Thinking

One method of dealing with habitual negative thoughts is to simply not let them enter your arena. As though you are an air traffic controller you can identify these thoughts and not let them land. For example, Here comes ‘I'm not good enough'. Over time your inner radar becomes more practiced at spotting them and stopping them from even entering your air space. You can use any number of analogies to stop these thoughts. Picture a shield that repels them. Or imagine they disintegrate before they reach you. You can even visualize holding them in your hand. When you know your own negative thinking patterns you have far more control over changing them.

Understanding the Delusion

Negative thoughts cloak true issues and true weaknesses. For example, if you think I'm never good at new recipes, it might simply be you don't have patience; you tend to seek approval and fear possible disapproval; you set impossible expectations; or you want to validate your negative thinking by not even trying for success. Whenever you feel stuck, see if you can find the negative statement behind it. Examine it and try to replace it with understanding and concern.

Focusing on Strengths

Out of habit the mind has a tendency to focus on negative patterns when difficulties arise. Likewise, the mind has also created a trail of positive patterns, when things went well. Use these positive experiences to influence your thinking and help meet a particular challenge.

Repeating a Mantra

From Sanskrit, mantra is comprised of the words manas, mind, and tra, to protect. It is a method of protecting the mind from negative thought. Most yoga traditions have powerful mantras that have been passed down for thousands of years from teacher to student. Mantras can be chanted, spoken, or repeated quietly, which is called japa. One purpose of using a mantra is to occupy the restless or potentially negative mind. Known as the mantra of compassion, om ma-ni pad-me hum is said to help dispel the six negative emotions of pride, jealousy, desire, ignorance, greed and anger. Om ga-nesh-var-a-ya na-ma-ha appeals to the higher self within and the process of removing the obstacles of negative thinking. Using a mantra over a period of time replaces the habit of negative thinking with a far more peaceful state of mind.

Contemplation: Using a Mantra to Uplift the Mind

The most common forum for repeating a mantra is during meditation or before going to sleep. It can be a wonderful springboard from a busy mind to a still mind. Repeating a mantra can also be highly successful to calm the mind during stressful situations.
  • If you haven't already tried it, repeat a mantra while waiting in a queue; when you or someone else is angry or frightened; when a yoga pose is uncomfortable; when you are in pain; when you can't think clearly or need to make a decision.
  • Allow the mantra to soothe negative thinking and replace agitation with peace.
The Higher Mind

Tibetan Buddhism identifies two aspects of the mind that provide different kinds of thinking. Sem is the part of the mind that associates with external circumstances. According to Sogyal Rinpoche in his book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, sem is the mind that ‘creates and indulges in waves of negative emotions and thoughts, that has to go on and on asserting, validating and confirming its existence by fragmenting, conceptualising and solidifying experience.'

The yogis tell us to look beyond this limited mind to the higher self, to our essence as a person, which is the same as the essence of universal consciousness. Sogyal Rinpoche says, ‘At present it is hidden within our own mind, our thoughts and emotions. Just as clouds can be shifted by a strong gust of wind to reveal the shining sun and wide-open sky, so, under certain special circumstances, some inspiration may uncover for us glimpses of this nature of mind. These glimpses have many depths and degrees, but each of them will bring some light of understanding, meaning and freedom. This is because the nature of mind is the very root itself of understanding. In Tibetan we call it Rigpa, a primordial, pure, pristine awareness that is at once intelligent, cognizant, radiant and always awake. It could be said to be the knowledge of knowledge itself.'

Yoga is always about opening yourself to your own higher consciousness. You always have the capacity to access your higher self at any time through intentional mindfulness. Prepared with the tools of awareness and willingness to change, anyone can dissolve the grip of a mischievous mind and move towards light, clarity and compassion.

Giving Yourself a Mind Moment

When you develop the habit of looking at the quality of your thinking you can change how you feel at any moment. Over time you learn to recognize negative thinking that simply isn't true. It can lead you to overcome highly charged negative emotion and bring you to the sense of peace that is the gateway to deep spiritual connection. At any moment, and especially when you are agitated, close your eyes and focus on the mind. Allow thoughts to bubble up like fresh water from a spring. Try to be open to information about your state of being.

Ask yourself:
  • What thoughts am I having? Notice how the mind develops associations into streams of thought.
  • What is the nature of the self-talk?
  • Is it running commentary, memory, or fantasies and other thoughts of the possible future?
  • What is the substance of the self-talk? Are you reviewing events, projects, plans, conversations, work or family life?
  • What is the tone of the inner voice? Is it gentle, neutral or critical? If your self-talk is critical, is it against yourself or others?
  • What is the feeling?
  • Is it pleasant or unpleasant? Notice the direct correlation between negative thoughts and unpleasant feeling.

Tips for Working with the Mind

Yoga asks us to be vigilant. By watching the play of the mind you can determine how much you are reacting to your own thoughts. When you are in a moment of tranquillity and well being, notice how connected or centred you feel. When you are troubled or stressed, look for inner truth. Ask yourself:
  • Did I just make that up?
  • Can I drop it?
  • How is this more about me than about another person or situation?
  • Am I arguing with reality?
  • Did I create an expectation (fantasy) that hasn't been fulfilled?
  • Can I accept rather than push away?
  • Which gives me the most peace: (1) to continue thinking in this direction (2) to think in a different way?
For Further Reading

Rinpoche, Sogyal, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Harper San Francisco, 1994.
Shankarananda, Swami, Consciousness Is Everything: The Yoga of Kashmir Shaivism, Shaktipat Press, Mt Eliza, Vic, 2003.

© 2006 Nancy Jackson (Swami Dayananda)