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Dealing with negative mind chatter.
Pollyanna83
Explorer
How can I positvely deal with a lot of negative mind chatter?? Ive been practicing a few years now and meditate regulalry but still feel unsettled and unclear. It seems the more i meditate, the more confusion I feel about myself and my life. I do have beautiful moments of clarity and peace, but they seem so rare and fleeting when compared to the chaos im usually up against.
0
Comments
just a part of the process, no worries, keep polishing
What is the cause of clarity and peace?
But noticing the chatter is an important step in undermining its power. Think of it as waves lapping on a shore.
Milarepa sat in a cave looking at the wall and thinking of a demon. Eventually after thinking so long a demon actually appeared. So he was in a pickle and the thing he did that helped was to make the demon a teacher. See if you can make the negative chatter into a teacher by showing you how to 'just observe' thoughts. In this case they are negative thoughts. They can't hurt you because you are not the thought unless you identify with a 'me' who is being 'oppressed'. By labeling them 'just thoughts' all of the sudden it isn't you versus them.
Do you happen to also do metta practice? Metta is great for agitation, and perhaps the discursive thoughts are bouncing with afflictive emotions. Ajahn Brahm has a great guided meditation specifically for generating metta:
With warmth,
Matt