How to Break the Addiction to Negative Thinking (This Changed My Life)

Welcome back to another video. My name is Aaron and I help people expand their consciousness. Now on this video, I'll be sharing with you some ideas that I have about understanding more about the process of changing our self-image. And really letting go and breaking down the patterns of thinking that we have that continue to hold us back. It's about really understanding that a lot of what we think is on autopilot and that through repetition we have in a way hypnotized ourselves for thinking in a certain way, but when we learn how to become aware of what we're thinking about, that's the true power as to when we start to then gain our power back. Now, The autopilot mind is something that will continue to run itself out, and it's the reason that day in and day out people get the same results that they've got the day before. It's the reason that when we wake up in the morning, we brush our teeth in a certain way, and then if we become aware of it, we realize that we brush our teeth the same way every day. It's when you are going to type in a phone number and when you start to type it in, you're not even consciously thinking about the numbers, but your body has already memorized it. Based upon the repetition. Repetition is something that rules our life. Repetition is something that requires very little energy because the brain doesn't have to work so hard, and the brain will always go on the path of least resistance. Now, because we have hypnotized ourselves in thinking the same thoughts over and over again, therefore in neurology and neuroscience, they say that neurons that fire together wire together. And think about it, every single time that we think thoughts and we think it and link it to another thought and we think them repetitively, we are strengthening that neurocircuitry and do more and more until then when we think about something, it just happens so naturally because it's the path of least resistance. But the moment that we become aware of what we're thinking, the moment we start to observe it rather than just simply react. That's when we really start to take our power back. That's when we really start to reset our internal programming for the way that we think, and that's when we can then really break the addiction that we might have towards repetitive thinking over and over and over again. Now I'll be honest with you guys, I've been a pretty consistently considered a positive person for a lot of my life because I think I mainly went— I went through a lot of, a lot of stuff growing up and a lot of pain as a lot of people have. I'm not saying I'm special in any way because of it, but what I am saying is that I've been through a lot and that because of it I've learned how to maintain a positive aspect or a positive perspective no matter what. So I'm not coming at this saying, you know, I used to think very negatively and I had to get out of that. Now I did go through very negative situations growing up when it comes to like abuse and stuff like that, but I've learned how to really grow out of it and how to reframe it. Now, the most powerful tool that I want to give to you guys and to help you to understand how to change the negative effects of the patterns of thinking that we have is learning how to not identify with our thinking and how to instead of observe it. Now, the way I always describe the observation of our thoughts rather than thinking of it is something I think I heard from The Power of Now or something similar to it, but it's as you are at a park, for example, and you are sitting on a park bench and you are walking people— walking— you are watching people walk by. When you are watching them walk by, the idea is that you can learn to observe the people that walk by, not judge them, not place labels onto them, but just simply observe them walking by. If you see a dog walk by, you just observe it walking by. Now, The ego will try to control, try to place labels, and try to direct the people that walk by. That's the idea that we can use. Now, the moment that we decide to simply observe the thoughts walk by in the same way we observe the people going by, we start to feel disconnected from the power it has over us, and we also start to shift ourselves to more of an awareness state of being. Now when we become aware, what we do is we neutralize the playing field. We neutralize the thoughts having so much power over us, and then at the same time we become aware of those thoughts, and in the awareness is the stopping of the pattern. And then from that point of view, we can then choose to change our thinking. You see, when we are in the reactive mind, when we are thinking purely from the ego, these will continue to perpetuate themselves over and over again. And the only time that we break free of that is in the moment of awareness, of awareness, of being aware of what we're thinking. And then secondly, simply deciding that we are going to observe it and we are going to— this is the most powerful part— we are going to allow it to be there. We're going to allow the dogs to walk by. We're going to allow the people to walk by. We're going to know that it's okay. It's okay that they are walking by in the same way the negative thoughts in our head. Let it be okay that it's there. Now that sounds very counterintuitive. I'm supposed to control the thoughts that come into my mind. I'm supposed to control and not let them in. The thing with this though is that we must realize that from the point of the ego, trying to control things only causes resistance because we're trying to control another aspect of ourself. Now, the power of this is knowing that the paradox is that when we simply allow the thoughts to be there, they will start to go away. Now, the analogy I always use for this is the idea of a toddler. In a way, our ego can be equated to a toddler. Now don't talk down to yourself. Don't necessarily think of yourself as less than, you know, sometimes we hear these things like our ego is horrible, we must crush, demolish, and destroy our ego. But the problem with crushing, destroying, and demolishing our ego is we still need our ego to have a physical experience, to have a kind of way of filtering our ego. In a way, acts as a filter, but if we can learn how to use it in a positive way, We stop that inner resistance when we're trying to suppress our ego and to judge ourselves. It causes more resistance. Now simply realize that in the observation of allowing the thoughts to be there, they start to go away. Now back to my analogy. Think of it in the form of a toddler. You don't argue with the toddler, or maybe you do, but when you argue with a toddler who maybe wants to do something that, uh, toddler's not allowed to do, the toddler might throw a temper tantrum. When the toddler is throwing a temper tantrum, if you continue to feed back and yell back at the toddler or argue with the toddler, that will keep the fight going. It keeps the dialogue there and it keeps the resistance. Now, if instead you use like mind Jedi tricks and you simply decide that you're going to explain to the toddler that This is why you can't do it, and that's that. Then what you do is you just go on observing but not arguing. What you will find, and you simply let it be, that eventually the toddler gets tired and the toddler takes a nap. Now that's just the analogy I like to use because stories have a way of really getting into our mind, helping us understand it at a deeper level. But learn how to treat your ego in a similar way, not in a judgmental or a talking down way necessarily, but just know that as you observe the thoughts You will watch them go by with alertness. You will just simply watch them go by and then they will go out. But if they start to come into the peripheral or into your awareness and you simply keep trying to control it like this, it will stay there. It will continue to cause resistance, but the moment you let it be there, it just goes on out because eventually as you are letting it be okay that it's there, it sees that it has no almost anything to feed on. It doesn't have anything to grab ahold of. So the power of this is simply the awareness of the negative thought walking around and then let it leave. It's the awareness. It's not the reactive mind. It's not trying to control anything. The control comes from the ego. Realize the only control that you need is over your own state of being, but it doesn't come with the egoic way that we think we control. State of being is just the awareness that we can choose the meanings as to what things mean. And that as we simply decide that we're going to feel the way we want to feel, we're going to maintain and reframe the situation in the way that we want, that that's how we really allow ourselves to have that kind of powerful control over our life. So the main power of this video is understanding that you reset yourself, that you start to gain your power back when you become aware of what you're thinking of. And as you simply observe the thoughts that come into your head, they will naturally start to dwindle down. They'll start to lose things to feed on. And as you start to do that, you start to really gain your power back. Now, another part of this process to really let go of the negative thinking is understanding that one of the strongest drives there is is to remain consistent to the way that we define ourselves or to what we call our identity. So when we become aware that maybe we have a thought about ourselves or a self-image that says that maybe I'm a negative person, or maybe it's just simply thinking that our thoughts have so much power over us, or that we're a victim to our mentality or a victim to that repetition, what we can then start to do is to flip the switch to understand that we are starting to become aware of what we're thinking. We can really just let go of any thinking about ourselves in a negative type way of having a negative label onto a part of who we are. And when we start to become aware that that was just the autopilotness that was running itself out, we can then start to simply decide that we are who we choose to be in the present moment and that we don't have to keep letting it have power over us. Now to do this, all you simply have to do is what I talked about earlier on in the vid about observing those thoughts, not reacting, and realize that as you simply just start to, for maybe a couple minutes a day, start to view yourself in a light to where you know you're becoming more aware of your thoughts, you know that you're not a negative person anymore because you're simply choosing to know that you're becoming aware of your thoughts and you're observing them. That observation is neutral. Now that there's no charge on it, you can then then simply decide that you are who you prefer to be in the present moment, and then you'll start to have a self-image that's more empowering. You'll start to feel more confident about who you are. You'll start to really understand the process of our ego, of the way that we define ourselves to be, of the kind of things we give power over to, and you can simply decide that the one thing that you will always have the ability to do is choose your own state of being, is to choose what things mean to you. So realize that from this point going forward, that from you watching this video today, that when you're done, you can simply be aware more of the time of what you're doing. You can realize that almost everything is on repetition and that when you become aware of it, just start to ask yourself the question, how do I prefer to be? What do I prefer to be doing right now? What do I prefer to think about this? This was a game changer for me because as I'd go into similar situations and notice the autopilot mind that I had, I would ask myself the question, is this the perspective that I prefer? Do I prefer to think about it like this? And as I began to then catch myself and decide that I'm going to think about it in a new way, it was like magic because things would happen in a completely new way. Now the key to this is just that choice, that observation, that awareness, the letting go of any type of self-image that says I'm a negative type person or my thoughts have power over me or thinking positive is hard to do or just even clearing my mind is hard to do. Start to let those go and understand it's as easy as you make it. Don't try to control, just simply observe and watch how it changes your life. So With that being said, I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Feel free to like this video if you liked it, subscribe if you haven't already, and as always, I will see you guys on the next vid. Peace, much love, and namaste. Alright, bye-bye. Bye.