The Power of Thoughts

An analysis of negative thoughts that pull us down and the power of positive ones.

The word thought needs no introduction, as every one of us experiences thoughts every moment. Thought is energy. It flows towards the intended person/direction. There are three types of thoughts -- Positive, Negative, and Neutral. We need not be concerned about Positive and Neutral thoughts. But we have to be concerned with Negative thoughts. Hence my topic today is how to manage Negative thoughts for a better life.

Let us see how thought works on a person effectively.

We have Padma Shri awardee Arunima Sinha's remarkable life story. She was born on 20-7-1989 in Sultanpur (UP). At 21 in 2011, she was a National level Volleyball player. She had to travel to Delhi by Train in the general compartment for a job. A group of people surrounded her in the fully packed compartment to snatch her gold chain. She resisted first, then had to fight them. But they overpowered her and threw her out of the compartment. No co-passenger came to her rescue all the while. She fell on the next track, and right then, another train passed over her left leg. Sinha had to spend the whole night in that condition as nobody rescued her. The following day she was taken to a hospital. Her left leg had to be amputated as gangrene had set in. The hospital did not have anesthesia, and Sinha boldly underwent amputation without it. During four months of hospitalization and helplessness, Sinha decided to live life without self-pity and stop being a burden on her family. In 2013, within two years of the mishap, she was able to scale Mt Everest -- the first Indian female amputee to climb it! She has won many awards, including the Padma Shri in 2015. Sinha's story shows the power of the mind and positive thoughts.

Let us see how negative thoughts work in our lives with a few examples.

Dr. B M Hegde, Retired Principal of K M C Manipal, narrated his experience treating a diabetic patient in his talks. The patient's wife used to question whether she would become diabetic. Despite Dr. Hegde explaining that it is not a contagious disease, she harbored that intense fear for a long time, and she finally got that! Many people develop such psychosomatic aches/diseases from entertaining negative thoughts for long.

A Tribe in the Solomon Islands has a practice of surrounding a tree which they want to cut and hurl abuses at that tree for up to 30 days. As a result, the tree dies naturally. This practice is mentioned in the movie Taare Zameen Par. The teacher, played by Aamir Khan, says abusing an innocent child may harm his future. This is the power of negative words!

A Japanese scientist, Masaru Emoto, conducted several experiments on water to show the power of words.

Take three glasses of water and keep them in different rooms. Paste three paper notes with the words -- Love you, Hate you, and Ignore you -- on each. As a miracle, water in the glass with love you shows a wonderful, perfect geometric molecular structure as was visible from photographic techniques. Whereas the other two glasses did not have any organized formation of molecules. 

An average person holds 10 to 20 thoughts in a minute. After seeing a depressing scene, a thriller movie, or a big fight, thoughts per minute may go beyond 150 per minute. You may recollect many emotions running in your mind, which may sometimes lead to a severe headache. Consider the strain on our minds by these additional thoughts on us! We should develop a technique to retain a state of mind with as minimum thoughts as possible for a pleasant lifestyle. When a negative thought comes to our mind, it should be immediately cut off. There should be no delay, as confirmed in the stories from Puranas --- which explain once the curse is pronounced, it can not be withdrawn! So this is the easiest way of avoiding karma phala due to this negative thought.

Practice telling yourself and imbibing positive affirmations, saying I am a peaceful soul, 11 times. This practice will miraculously change people's attitudes towards us from negative to positive. This no doubt transforms us too into peaceful persons in a matter of a few months. 

These are a few tips to counter negativity creeping into our minds through unwanted thoughts and a guaranteed solution to have a conducive atmosphere around us.

Images courtesy: Unsplash

Do you have anything else to add? Do share your thoughts in the comment below. Read Mr. Rao's feature on Transactional Analysis here.

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