Why you shouldn’t try to generate positive thoughts

Many writers keep?constant and active generating positive thoughts?for the holy grail of personality development.

If you manage to make the tempting-sounding promise to install a?“positive thought machine”?in your head, then?financial success?, endless wellbeing and the lifelong sausage-with-mustard flat rate at Renate’s snack bar will fly into your home just as easily as a commercial broadcast from Poco Domain.

You control your thoughts as easily and quickly as Aladin rubs on the?magic?lamp and?almost magical things?happen promptly?.

But if it were so simple, why isn’t?the whole world?swimming?in money,?why are?more than 50% of all marriages divorced?and why does Renate still take money from you every day for the damn sausage?

Chances are you’re just not generating positive thoughts with enough devotion and ardor .

Maybe.

Accordingly, the breakthrough should be imminent. But even many years later, only very few people?really experience fundamental change?.

On the basis of these facts, the attentive observer could conclude that?positive thinking is of no use.

I would not go so far.

Positive thinking is?right and important.

But it just doesn’t work through?“blunt”?control of your own thoughts through willpower, in which we quickly slip back into old thought patterns and in the end?even reproach?ourselves?for it.

How a realist uses the power of his thoughts and why positive thinking has been scientifically proven can sometimes even have tangible negative effects on your life, you will?find out in these two articles.

In this article I would like to explain to you how your mind really works and how you can manage to generate positive thoughts permanently and?automatically?— without having to fight a strenuous fight against negative thoughts?.

Positive thoughts: You have power over your mind

The prerequisite for this is to recognize that you can let your mind do what you want.?You are in control of him.

You can now have him say?“Hello”?.

“Hello”.

You can use it to solve a math problem and set up your monthly budget. Plus, you can let him imagine the things you want.

As you can see, you have?power?over your mind.

But now comes the crux:?for a moment you have it …

In the long run, your ability to control thoughts is about as bad?as a sunflower in the Arctic Circle.

Brief self-assessment:?what percentage of the day do you use your mind?consciously?

·?How often do you actively decide what to think?

· How often do you visualize yourself successfully achieving your goals instead of in situations where you fail or other people take advantage of you?

If I can infer you even remotely,?then that is the exception rather than the rule.

90–95% of the day and thus of life we just listen to the thoughts and?unconsciously react to everything they whisper to us.

This is why it changes so little or so slowly and you feel the?same every day?while you do similar things in?almost identical ways?.

Why controlling your thoughts is extremely difficult

“Scientists”?have found that a person thinks an average?of 50,000 thoughts a?day.

After 13 years I can finally use my math performance course expertise from 2004 and tell you that this is around?35 thoughts per minute?.

Without backing up the next statement through higher education, I claim that controlling 35 thoughts every minute is just as?exhausting?as an ultra marathon through the Gobi desert.

That is also the reason why so many people?fail with it.?It is inappropriately exhausting?to fight negative thoughts daily?and replace them with positive thoughts.

Despite all the well-intentioned efforts, the negative thoughts creep back in faster?than you would like.

But hops and malt are not lost yet.?There is a solution.?To do this, we must first understand?how the mind works.

How your mind works

Your mind creates thoughts?— that’s its job.?He does this almost without a break and without your having a say in it.

It has a lot of similarities to a machine.?As reliable as clockwork, it produces thoughts.?It’s an?automatic thinking machine?in your head.

If you do not determine what your mind says, then it produces thoughts?all by itself — and that is the basic state of most people.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, where all of a sudden thoughts like?“I don’t think he loves me anymore”?or?“I am sure that my heart project will fail and everyone will laugh at me”?suddenly come from if for a second were not in your consciousness before?

Hello who is speaking

You probably didn’t deliberately choose to have destructive thoughts.

No.?Very few people?willfully?feed their minds with negative thoughts.

In the end, we all have?positive intentions?for our lives.

We want to be free, feel good, be successful and eat sausage for free until we get sick.

Why do we still think so often that the world is bad, strangers reject us and our new project will go under, like canned ravioli in cheap tomato sauce that is too thin?

Why does the mind create the thoughts that it creates?

The mind generates thoughts especially when you are in?emotional turmoil?.

It does this in an attempt to?release emotional energy to?make you feel?“better”?.

Most people today are in a state of?persistent fear, tension, and aggression?for lack of the ability to proactively manage their feelings?.

Because of this, the mind rattles in a loop?. The more intense the unpleasant emotion, the?more speed it?picks up. This is why it is so incredibly difficult to try to force him to think positively over the long term.

Since we are constantly haunted by unpleasant emotions, we are permanently drawn?into its wake.

We think positively for a moment, only to “wake up” after a while and wonder?what?kind of chocolate we have been brooding over in the last two hours.

The mind behaves like your immune system.?He acts independently.

Just like you don’t have to tell your white blood cells that they should now, if you please, slowly fight?the deadly virus in your bloodstream?, because otherwise you will be crossing the Jordan, you have to order your mind to babble with the aim of?an emotional one again To establish balance.

He just does it.

Its primary goal is to get rid of uncomfortable feelings. The tool of choice for him is to want to control the situation.

To?do?this, he feverishly analyzes?what you can do?to change the feeling.

I bet you know that too.

You feel bad?Suddenly the thought comes that you absolutely have to change something.?Preferably yesterday instead of today.

You promptly make plans to really get into shape now, quit your job and go on a trip around the world, break up with your partner or hurt someone out of revenge.

Where do these thoughts suddenly come from?if they weren’t in your consciousness a few seconds before?

Did you make a?conscious?decision, or did these brilliant ideas come from your automatic thinking machine?

The latter is the case.?Automatic thoughts?are the mind’s attempt to get rid of emotions that it?cannot cope with.

Your mind is like a lake

Think of your mind like a lake.?Untouched it has a perfectly smooth surface.

When someone throws a stone into the lake, this perfectly smooth surface is?churned up.

There are waves.

Depending on how big the stone and with how much force it was thrown into the water, either?smaller or larger waves?arise?.

Your mind is also relatively calm until something happens in your life that creates?an emotional wave?.

Where there was peace and relaxation a few seconds ago, your mind suddenly sprints away as if it were in the 100m final of the Olympic Games.

This is why we so often fail to generate positive thoughts. Once the emotions get going, there is hardly any stopping them.

The automatic thinking machine rattles off and we are?paralyzed by these strong emotions?and?give in to it.

There is seldom anyone at home in your head

Especially in such situations we see our minds as?“us”?.

Because we are identified with him, we have no other option than?to believe everything?he tells us and, moreover, to?fully embrace it.

We think?we’re talking?to ourselves there. At this moment we are taking everything the automatic thinking machine says to us at?face value.

After all, we assume that “?we”?are talking to?“us”?— and all the chatter would make an awful lot of sense.

Here we are falling into a trap that?spoils?many people’s?entire lives.

We think we are this thinking machine. We think their chatter has something to do with reality.

But in truth we are not that voice in our head.

We are the consciousness that?perceives this voice.

This is a huge difference and at the same time the key to freeing you from his stranglehold.

What your mind has in common with a fly on the wall

Your mind is just as much?an object in your consciousness that?you can perceive, like a?fly on the wall?or a car. But he has the ability to produce sounds that look astonishingly similar to our voice and to which we therefore assign?meaning?— that is why we often confuse?“him”?with?“us”.

But remember a moment when you were really?scared?. Or a moment when you were completely overwhelmed by the?beauty of nature?.

At such moments, the voice in your head is?completely silent.?But you are still there.

Meditation can also lead to a state in which your mind is no longer producing thoughts?— do you then cease to exist?

No, your consciousness perceives that there are currently?no thoughts?.

So you are not your thoughts?Otherwise you would cease to exist in those moments.

You are here — your thoughts are there.?You are the one who perceives the thoughts?(and also perceives when there are no thoughts).

You are here — there are your thoughts

The mind generates thoughts that are disturbing in a tour.?So far this is not tragic.

It becomes problematic when nobody is?“at home”?to notice.

These thoughts develop into a real maelstrom, into which we are drawn the longer we do not?“wake up”.

We sound like a 10-year-old guilty child who just got an enema for throwing a slice of salami on the ceiling?(similarities to the author are purely coincidental and in no way intended)?and then?we?start with the worst case of,?any nonsense?to make in this world.

·?We sabotage ourselves.

·?We start an argument.

·?We are unfair to other people.

·?We keep pulling back.

All because the mind presents this to us in its?control mania, instigated?by?unpleasant feelings,?as a good option?, in the desperate attempt to?alleviate unpleasant emotions.

How to generate lasting positive thoughts

You have now learned that your mind is a difficult-to-control machine that is?incessantly generating thoughts.?You have recognized that it is especially at its best when you are in?emotional turmoil?and that for this reason it is difficult to generate positive thoughts over the long term.

Its only mission is to?get rid of these feelings.

In order to escape from this unconscious vicious circle, all you have to do is become?aware of this vicious circle.

Look inward and realize that?your mind has?gotten?hard out of control.

He will continue to have a strong tendency to think the thoughts that you thought yesterday and 5 years ago and for this reason you will also feel the?same as yesterday or 5 years ago.

The only way to effectively create more positive thoughts and calmness is to give up?resisting the feelings that trigger the negative thoughts?.

You don’t have to stop the mind. Nor do you have to compulsively generate positive thoughts.

All you have to do is stop?listening to the mind.

It is also absolutely counterproductive to denigrate the mind or to hate it.

The goal should be to?make peace with him?instead of jumping on every train of thought that rushes by.

Realize that you are not the mind, but the?one who perceives the?thoughts produced by the mind?.

“Mindfulness” — How mindfulness automatically generates positive thoughts

The word mindfulness is on everyone’s lips today and almost everything is sold under it?that has anything to do with spirituality.

For me, mindfulness means that we live in this?observer position?as often as possible .

It means to notice earlier and earlier when the lab box starts up again and wants to?tell?you?about the horse?.

It’s about being?present?instead of getting full texts and taking everything at face value.

“Hello mind. I know you only want the best for me, but today I kindly decline your advice. Thank you for your efforts. From today you don’t tell me what is best to do — I’ll tell you. “

The way leads back a step

If you can recognize that you are?not your mind?, but that your mind is a machine that incessantly generates thoughts without you having to have a lot of say, then this is?your first step towards freedom.

Realize:?Here I am, the consciousness — there is the mind.

I perceive these thoughts,?but they are not me.?Sometimes there is even a short time calm in the head — the consciousness?(i.e. you)?is still there.

Let go of the underlying emotion

Your thinking machine feverishly generates all sorts of thoughts to?keep uncomfortable feelings in check.

As we found out,?she’s not too successful at doing this.?Otherwise the one-time thinking would lead to the emotions being permanently gone. But they don’t. You keep thinking ahead.

In order to generate lasting positive thoughts?, we therefore start directly with the feeling and let it go.

Start practicing with little things:

· When someone honks at you at the traffic light

· When you are criticized

· …

Notice how an emotion arises in you and how your mind immediately tries?to take control.

The thoughts roll over.

Observe this,?but do not intervene.?Let the thoughts be there, let the feeling be there and notice how both simply move on after a while.

Just?let?the feeling move on instead of trying to?control it.

· If you just?let go of?your anger , your mind can?not?generate?angry thoughts?.

· If you fully feel your fear, accept it and then let it move on, then?fearful, control-mad thoughts?can?no?longer arise.

· You will no longer have so much turbulence in your life and you will no longer do so many things that?you later regret?or for which you end up?paying?a high price.

Then at some point you will notice that the sun is rising too, even if you?don’t?listen to?your mind all day.

You will find that the earth continues to revolve around the sun, your heart keeps beating and that?you keep waking up every morning.

Everything just goes on until you?perceive?it?completely differently.

This is how you create space. When your mind no longer has to fight negative feelings, it has more capacity?to think positively .

Immerse yourself in the flow of life

Now it will happen automatically what is never possible through willpower and struggle?— your mind will become calmer and calmer.

You no longer get overwhelmed by?negative thoughts?every 15 seconds .

Since you are now?accepting and?letting?go of?negative feelings instead of letting your mind fight them, there are fewer and fewer reasons for the mind to?freak out.

More and more?positive thoughts?come into your consciousness and you no longer have to fight against an overwhelming?majority of?negative thoughts in the desire to?“make?them?go away”.

At the same time, you have to be aware that this is never the goal, but a nice side effect.

The goal must always remain to consciously observe the thoughts and feelings, to accept them and then to let them move on?— that is, to live mindfully.

You cannot force the mind to brood less.

He will stop doing this?on his own?when you are able to watch?him instead of listening to him or resisting him.

Where it was before that the outer world comes into your consciousness, triggers a feeling in you and your mind immediately tells you what is?good for you?(avoids bad emotions) and what is?bad for you?(leads to bad emotions), you can suddenly see life the?way it is.

Before, you perceived it?through the filter of your mind?.

Now you see people, things and the world out there for?what they are?instead of your mind-constructed bundle of prejudices about them.

This is a fundamental difference and leads to well-being.?You don’t have to fight negative thoughts anymore.

Positive thoughts arise on their own?because you effectively deal with uncomfortable feelings.

Just as your mind used to generate negative thoughts due to a lot of negative emotions,?it is now generating positive thoughts.

Just because. Without a fight. Without any effort.

You are in your original state.?Creative. Positive.?In real connection with the world and with yourself.

The first step is to realize that there is a chatterbox in your head that?automatically generates thoughts?—?and stop listening to it.

She makes funny sounds all day.?Let them do that.?But stay present.

From there everything else will take care of itself. Have trust in this process and let go of your mind’s desire?to control everything?.