I’ve noticed my negative thoughts fall into two distinct types. The first type–where I consciously and deliberately frame things in a negative light–is like pouring fuel on the fire, or voluntarily putting my hand on a hot stove, and doesn’t lead to anything productive. The second type–negative thoughts and feelings that arise without my bidding–are simply a reflex, and dissipate faster once I allow them to exist and allow them to be felt (suppression/denial/willful ignorance of them results in false positivity, which only makes me more negative).
The first type results from a deliberate act of will, while the second is an automatic event. The first is good to avoid, while the second is good to allow.
Maybe that’s just how it works in my head, and my head alone. I’m not sure.
Dirty Sci-Fi Buddha 
I don’t think you are alone there.
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I’m in touch with that emotion.
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i like this delineation
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This is something I was ruminating on myself two mornings ago as I was struggling through a personal issue. And I somehow let number two morph into number one. Eventually I realized what I was doing and simply sat with the original bit. And calmed down some.
You’re definitely not alone in this.
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Yes, I think you are correct. Number 1 we should avoid. That makes sense. Accepting and allowing number 2, is easier said than done, I find.
But what you say reminds me a bit of the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear from the Dune books. I may have got some words wrong, but it says,
“I will not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. It is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will let fear pass over and through me. Where fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Replace “fear” with “negativity” and we have what you are saying.
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Great quote! I love Dune!
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Some examples of your negative thoughts would be useful.
You are calling them “thoughts” and you are calling them “negative”.
Say there is a ham sandwich before you, but you don’t eat ham.
You don’t eat ham because it is against your religion.
If you abandon and betray the strictures of your religion, what?
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Judgment of worth generally isn’t useful–people usually judge worth when they should be judging whether someone provides functionality for a specific problem.
If you abandon the strictures of your religion, then perhaps that religion isn’t for you. There are many ways up the mountain, and if divinity is infinite, then it has provided an infinite abundance of paths to reach it.
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“Judgment of worth generally isn’t useful–people usually judge worth when they should be judging whether someone provides functionality for a specific problem.”
Okay, but let’s go back to this:
“I’ve noticed my negative thoughts fall into two distinct types. The first type–where I consciously and deliberately frame things in a negative light–is like pouring fuel on the fire, or voluntarily putting my hand on a hot stove, and doesn’t lead to anything productive.”
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I classify judgments of worth as negative thoughts. If they naturally arise, I let them be and they naturally go. But if deliberately focus on them, they stay around longer than necessary.
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So here we go…
…This is a specific example of what you consider a negative thought:
“I classify judgments of worth as negative thoughts.”
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Yes, that’s correct
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Like the ebb and the flow of tide. The moon as the cold mistress
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Well said, and in my head, too
Thank you for liking my poem!
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