How to let go of negative thoughts and emotions

Posted on October 27, 2008
Filed Under Embrace Your Highest Path and Purpose, Manifest Your Desired Outcomes, Soul Realignment, Spiritual Development |

Many people are concerned over their own negative thought patterns and emotions. The universal worry is that these negative thoughts will manifest themselves as unpleasant events eventually. How can we let go of negative thought and emotion?

When it comes to negative thoughts, we must remember that thought in and of itself has very little substance. Our mind is always thinking, and if every thought manifested itself, we’d all have nervous breakdowns! Thoughts are fleeting creations - they arise, take form, and dissipate. Imagine your exhalations on a cold winter day. You can see your breath for only a little while before it evaporates. Thoughts themselves have about as much form and impact as your breath - unless we feed them with energy.

We can give a thought energy by reacting to it with emotion - thus generating more thought and more emotion. Have you ever gotten yourself all worked up over an imaginary scenario, such as losing your job or discovering a cheating spouse? We can feed a thought with our energy so that it becomes very substantial. If we hold a thought and the accompanying emotional energy for 68 seconds or more, according to Jerry and Esther Hicks, we begin manifesting accordingly.

Without emotional energy, thoughts simply arise and dissipate, just like our breath.

What happens when we react to a thought with fear? We may find ourselves in a negative thought and immediately follow up with “Oh no, I shouldn’t be thinking this! I’m thinking negatively. Quick, let’s think of a positive affirmation.” Fear is a powerful reaction. What we resist, persists. Resistance is just another way of directing energy. If, for example, positive affirmations are a means of resisting a negative thought, then they can in fact feed energy into the very thought pattern they are meant to dispel.

It’s far more effective to observe negative thoughts than to resist them. Observation allows us to step away from the thought, rather than feeding it with emotional energy. Negative emotion generally arises as a reaction to a thought. If we cease reacting, we can let go of negative emotion as well as thought. Imagine sitting next to your stream of thoughts as if it were a river flowing by. We are not pulled along by the currents in that river because we are merely standing by and watching. We’re not jumping in for a swim.

In order to let go of negative thought and emotion, we don’t have to control our thoughts. We don’t have to suppress our emotions. Our mind does so much thinking that it would be impossible to do so, anyway. We are constantly thinking, feeling beings. Instead of resisting our negative thoughts and emotions, we observe. Through observation, we can begin to select the thoughts to which we give emotional energy. We gift our positive thoughts with an appropriate emotional reaction. In this way, we give our chosen thought substance, so that we will attract like resonances into our lives. The rest we simply observe, knowing that they will dissipate harmlessly without consequence.

Blessings,
Andrea

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Comments

12 Responses to “How to let go of negative thoughts and emotions”

Kara-Leah on October 27th, 2008 7:36 pm

I love that sentence - “We simply select the thoughts to which we give our emotional energy to.”

I had that experience in my yoga practice today - I shifted from focusing on the weakness and restriction within my body and instead could connect with the strength and the opening. And what a difference it made to my practice! Instead of a struggle…. it was a pleasure.
Evelyn Lim on October 27th, 2008 9:10 pm

It’s great to know that not every negative thought will manifest itself in a terrible outcome, not unless we put emotional energy behind it. I like your tip in just observing and not resisting. Simply observing increases my level of awareness. There is no judgement either if my thought is a negative one. I choose which thought I would like to pursue and consciously create the physical reality that I intend for myself.
Richard McLaughlin on October 28th, 2008 12:20 am

“thoughts simply arise and dissipate, just like our breath.”
yepp, that’s me right now.

I don’t have emotional energy. My partner started a fight the other day over (I have no idea what) and I told her that I just can’t fight. Nothing left to give.
Brenda Dumas on October 28th, 2008 5:00 am

Andrea,
I love the concept of the river of thoughts (and not jumping in for a swim)! I am definitely going to utilize this visualization to help me when negative thoughts arise.
Thanks,
Brenda
ActiveWellness on October 28th, 2008 12:43 pm

This was a nice article. When we breathe out on a cold night, we no longer see the mist because it has mingled with the air around us… yet it is still there. It has just become part of a much bigger thing, returning to where it came from.

So I suppose yes, negative thoughts are like that. After a time they no longer become “negative” and are just “thoughts”, or perhaps energy that has turned into something else.
Slade | Shift Your Spirits on October 28th, 2008 1:08 pm

Andrea,

The explanation of thoughts having to be invested with some emotional energy is a great point. We are taught to manifest the things we desire by charging the visualization with an emotion, so it only makes sense that the inverse of that investment is at work also.

The stream metaphor really resonates with me, as I picture a stream of consciousness with leaves floating down it, each leaf representing a thought. Watching a leaf pass by is not the same thing as reaching in and plucking it out of the stream…

Digging that frosty, dissipating breath image — wonderful!
Slade
Anita Smith on October 29th, 2008 12:14 pm

Andrea,
Thank you so much for addressing this issue. I have often worried that I was worrying and that would bring the undesired result to me. Kind of a bind I would get myself into. I will try and be observant and not put any emotion behind negative thoughts. Thanks so much for the great advice.
Anita
Sol on October 30th, 2008 2:02 am

I am not alone. That’s what I got when reading the messages people have left here. My Name is Sol and I am from the UK. I use to be very much into Buddhism and I am sure I misunderstood the teachings. I struggled with not thinking about bad thoughts and the more I thought about not thinking about bad thoughts the more I thought about bad thoughts, and got myself into a bit of straight jacket! I hope people I getting the humour in what I have written. I know that the Law of Attraction is reality. Yesterday my partner was teaching a singing lesson with a male student and I had these funny thoughts of worst case scenario and I thought how crazy to have these thoughts of jealousy and also to worry about the manifestation of these thoughts becoming reality, due to me thinking them, so I tried to not focus on them and could again feel the straight jacket. What seems to work for me is recognizing that I will always be a student. I will always be learning and discovering more and more of my infinite nature forever and ever. So I cannot be perfect even though I might wish to move to being in alignment with perfection. I than accept myself and and acknowledge that I am feeling jealousy and I am scared to loose the love of my life and this is just fear arising due me not accepting that not all things are within my control, I live in universe where other people have free-will and that uncertainty is another aspect of my life. As I allow myself to step into this realization, I let go of getting it right and move more into being present with the feeling in a non judgemental way. Being open and willing to look without seeking an outcome. The image of holding a child that has fallen over comes to mind as I write. When a child has fallen over one would not get angry with the child and not understand why he or she is crying. We simply give the child a hug and reassure him or her that things are o.k and that the pain will go away. Self acceptance is a key to me releasing negative emotions. I give up having a war within myself because supposedly being a spiritual person I should have mastered this ages ago and that I ’should’ be in control of my negative emotions. The more I allow myself to be in non mind attitude to experience as it arises moment by moment, the greater is the experience of freedom and lightness available to me. I am grateful for contrast. Because of contrast I am enabled to make choices within my circle of influence. I like to acknowledge physical reality, so I had a conversation with my partner about this experience. She smiled and said I love you so much I would not dream of hurting you. I smiled back and felt grateful that I could share this with her and that this manure in my mind acted as fertilizer to create a new situation for us. Greater intimacy in our relating. I look at negativity as contrast to the other side of the coin. The seed of greed is Generosity, the seed of lack is Abundance, the seed of limitation is Freedom, the seed of jealousy is Unconditional Love.
Albert | UrbanMonk.Net on October 30th, 2008 10:09 am

Beautiful stuff as always Andrea - especially the point about replacing a negative thought with a positive affirmation. Very painful stuff, as most of us who’ve tried it have discovered.

Albert
How do I stop these compulsive thoughts invading my brain? | Prana Flow NZ on November 2nd, 2008 12:13 pm

[...] The following article was written last year, and I have decided to re-publish it here for a couple of reasons. One reason is the positive response it gained back then, plus I’ve been inspired by Andrea Hess’ recent article over at Empowered Soul called Are You Struggling with Negative Thoughts? [...]
Sol on November 2nd, 2008 11:34 pm

I would like to share an experience in relationship to this discussion. I recently purchased From http://www.Tybro.com Attaching Spirits Removal CD. This CD emits a high-pitched tone to clear any negative entities in your environment. It is a wonderful tool to clear your home and create a sacred space to work in and The Miracle Prayer CD which has sacred prayers and beautiful music that uplift and also remove negative thoughts. After listening to both CD’s I felt incredible, a really sacred connection within with Source. Recently I had written about certain negative thoughts and emotions that would arise. Since listening to both CD’s I have recognised that sometimes these thoughts and negative emotions might not necessarily be mine and in fact may be arising from another living energy field within the living energy field that I am. It has been a positive breakthrough in seeing this and now I will be less of a believer of these negative thoughts and negative emotions that arise which would enable me to not give them attachment that is counter-productive to my well being. Thank Andrea for letting me know about these wonderful CD’s and thank everyone for sharing your thoughts and feelings as I am finding it very useful. Blessings. Sol
Michelle Lee on November 6th, 2008 9:35 am

Very good Andrea,
I agree, one of the most powerful things we can do is observe our thoughts and just be aware of them. So often we end up deep in the emotion before we even realize what the preceeded it.
There is power in awareness.
Blessins,
Michelle