{"id":569,"date":"2017-07-25T11:11:49","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T17:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/?p=569"},"modified":"2017-07-25T11:11:49","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T17:11:49","slug":"how-to-make-peace-with-negative-thoughts-and-emotions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/?p=569","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Peace With Negative Thoughts and Emotions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

There has been a great deal of emphasis in the New Age movement over the past few years on the power of positive thinking, with strong recommendations to eliminate all negative thoughts and emotions in order to enhance the benefits of being positive. In fact, some teachers have urged their students to break ties with any negative people in their lives to avoid being contaminated by their less-than-ideal energy.<\/p>\n

But what happens when you feel negative emotions such as fear, doubt or anger arising within you? What do you do when your thoughts turn to the dark side? Again many teachers recommend shutting out these thoughts and feelings by ignoring them and replacing them with a positive outlook.<\/p>\n

However, from the study of human psychology we know that you cannot actually rid yourself of negative emotions \u2013 you can only repress them, which causes those feelings to retreat into the Shadow. Once your negative emotions find a hiding place within your subconscious Shadow, they are free to create all sorts of chaos in your life, as has been discussed in other posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But is there a better way to manage your own negativity so that it doesn\u2019t poison your efforts to create a positive attitude or sabotage your attempts to grow as a person? The answer can be found within a poem written by Rumi, the Sufi philosopher who was born in the year 1207.<\/p>\n

Rumi says to think of your psyche as a guest house that has a new arrival or unexpected visitor every morning, such as \u201ca joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness.\u201d He recommends that you welcome all of your thoughts and feelings \u201ceven if they\u2019re a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,\u201d for they \u201cmay be clearing you out for some new delight.\u201d In the last lines of the poem Rumi concludes:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The dark thought, the shame, the malice,<\/p>\n

meet them at the door laughing,<\/p>\n

and invite them in.<\/p>\n

Be grateful for whoever comes,<\/p>\n

because each has been sent<\/p>\n

as a guide from beyond.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What a novel way of looking at these troublesome thoughts and feelings of ours \u2013 as guests who have arrived for some purpose even though we don\u2019t really understand what that might be. And we should not only allow them to have a presence in our lives, but we must tolerate the effects they have upon us because those negative parts of ourselves play an important role in our growth process.<\/p>\n

When we reject our own negative feelings it is as if we lock our \u201chouse guests\u201d in the basement where they remain hidden from us and we lose sight of their influence on our behavior. But when we openly welcome our negativity, we keep it within our vision where we can monitor it until we become powerful enough to gain control. By acknowledging and owning our negative thoughts we gain the ability to analyze and work with them and can then understand ourselves better and eventually grow in consciousness.<\/p>\n

So remember to keep the doors of your \u201cguest house\u201d unlocked and ready for any visitors that choose to show up. Be prepared for some difficult times when you won\u2019t be able to find many positive \u201cguests\u201d at all. But also be aware that there is a purpose for everything you think and feel. Enjoy exploring the mysteries that arrive in your life. Let them clear you out and make room for the next \u201cvisitor\u201d to appear \u2013 because it might just be the joy you have been waiting for all along!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been a great deal of emphasis in the New Age movement over the past few years on the power of positive thinking, with strong recommendations to eliminate all negative thoughts and emotions in order to enhance the benefits of being positive. In fact, some teachers have urged their students to break ties with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,41],"tags":[45],"class_list":{"0":"post-569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-spiritual-practice","7":"category-transformation","8":"tag-rumi-poem","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=569"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":572,"href":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions\/572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eoluniversityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}