Negativity

We all experience reoccurring negative thoughts at some point in our lives. It might be when we replay an argument we have had with someone, or relive some past abuse which haunts us. When these negative thoughts arise, we are not living in the present moment any longer, but the past.

How does this help us? What use are these thoughts and emotions to our present existence?

Even if the argument was moments ago, it is still in the past, yet our egos are hanging onto it, revelling in the drama of it, thinking what we should have said or done, or how that person has made us feel. But hanging onto these thoughts and emotions does not help us to get past it. They only make us blind to the present moment we are in and fill us with emotions and thoughts that harm us, physically as well as mentally.

If we are in a prison cell, locked away for a crime we did not commit, we can waste our lives stewing about the injustice of the situation, but that will not change the situation.

Once we are able to recognise our thoughts and emotions for what they are, we are in a better position to let them go and allow ourselves to be present in the here and now. This very minute is our life and what we do, say, feel right now is what matters, not what went on in the past.

Sometimes we do need time to think through certain events, but instead of reliving them, it would serve us better to examine them from a different perspective, an outsiders perspective, and see that they do not matter, not in the great scheme of things, and that if we are able to let them go, then they lose all power over us and we are free to be present.