Negativity is defined as “a tendency to consider only the bad side of something or someone; a lack of enthusiasm or hope”, in oxford dictionary. By definition it’s a pessimist outlook to life in general. A human mind is filled with various kinds of thoughts, which can be broadly distributed in the category of negative and positive. People who complain a lot are considered, negative slash pessimist in nature. A person forms a pessimist outlook of life when they fail to accept the situation as it is and nags about it instead of working to right it. People with positive outlook will acknowledge the situation for what it is and will work on turning it in their favour.
Negativity can also be sourced from outside, with social media being at our disposal, and the growing competitiveness in every part of one’s life, negativity is easy to embrace. Competition pits us against each other, which can be the stem of negative emotions like, jealousy, anger, annoyance, fear, frustration and more.
How to Tackle Negativity?
The straightforward answer to the query is to let go. Let go of all the negative emotions and move on. But it’s easy said than done and is too vague to be helpful. Thus, let us help you with our six step method to deal with Negativity.
1. Identify Negativity: Our emotions like we said earlier can be broadly divided in the category of Positive and Negative. Identifying your Negative Thoughts majorly helps in dealing with them, Question yourself, “if a certain thought is helpful or not?” “does it instigate any of the negative emotions in you?” If the thought is not helping in anyway, if it makes you feel negative feelings discard it instantly, try to distract yourself to neutral thoughts, start focusing on your breathing, try to think of positive things about your life. Daily practice will slowly but steadily dwell results.
2. Find Joy in Contentment: Contentment is known as Samtosha in Yoga, a highly valued practice in Yoga. Accepting our situation for what it is, is a powerful move towards tackling negativity. When you catch yourself craving for something you don’t have, or coveting to others possession, remind yourself of Samtosha. Daily practicing of gratitude helps in getting rid of negative thoughts. When we start putting efforts in thinking about our good fortune there is little space left for negativity, we are redirecting our mind to positivity. We can also use our discontent as a motivation to work towards our goals more dedicatedly.
3. Meditate to Shift Focus: Meditation is one of the key factors of Yoga which works towards mental peace. While one can’t get rid of negativity hundred percent, it can diminish to minimal by practicing meditation. The first time, you meditate all your thoughts will be amplified, making you aware of the amount of negativity present in you. But regular practice will strengthen your focus and help in redirecting your attention to positivity. There are types of meditations in Yoga, choose the one that fits with you. You could either try japa meditation, where one focuses on chanting positive thoughts, or metta meditation, where you chant mantras to centre your thoughts; “Om Namah Shivaya” is the most common mantra.
4. Change Your Lifestyle: As you slowly get aware of your negativity, you understand the different types of negative thoughts, examine these emotions and analyse the roots of it, which take larger part of your everyday life, which cause the most discomfort. You will start to notice patterns, journal your thoughts daily and search them online to then replace them with their positive counter thoughts. For example, practice appreciation when you feel jealousy. Examine and correlate your thoughts with your lifestyle- your daily habits, friends, your diet, etc. Working on improving your lifestyle will have an instant effect on your negative thoughts. Practice Yogic lifestyle to bring positivity in your daily life.
5. Remove Self-Hate: We inherently tend to follow the path of self criticism quite often. The negative self talk is known to emerge from asmita (I-am-ness) in Yogic practice, the over-identification of ourselves with our ahamkara or ego. To work on our dysfunctional self-image the Yogic practices to adopt are Vairagya (detachment), pratyahara (inward focus) and swadhyaya (self-study/contemplation) these help refining and reducing our internal and external self-image.
6. Be Kind: The process of declining negativity from life, is a lifelong process, give yourself time to accustom to these practices. The beginning is usually hard and it takes time to incorporate these new practices in your lifestyle. Exploring and investigating negative thoughts can leave you feeling beat up in your heart and leave your spirit broken. Be kind to yourself; give love, compassion and tenderness to your mind and spirit. Create a list which helps in nurturing yourself, and practice them when the need for self-kindness arises.
Negativity thoughts are hard to cancel, our brains since evolution are bias towards negative thoughts, and are more sensitive towards them than positive or neutral thoughts. It’s a lifelong process to keeping negativity to the minimal, and times may arise when the level fluctuates. But daily practicing of Yogic tools will help in building semblance in times of chaos.
