Today in morning Bernd came to visit me together with Helga. He also does healing work. Since one year I had not seen my friend and it was nice to meet him after this long time. We had some breakfast together.
In the evening I had a lecture, a Satsang in Sabine's house. The subject was how to cope with negative energy in our everyday life. I would like to tell a little bit what I said in that lecture. Many times people ask me: I get negative energies; I feel I have negativity inside me and many negative thoughts come into my mind. What should I do? Some of them really struggle with that and ask themselves why they think so negatively. One question is in their mind: Am I a bad person? They want to know what to do about the negativity inside them.
It can be everyone, you or I, we all are just the same, normal humans. I can understand this. Please do not worry about it or feel guilt about it when these bad thoughts and negativity comes. I would just like to give you one example:
We build a house with nice rooms and then we make windows in the rooms to let some fresh air and light come in. But through that window it is not only light and fresh air that comes but also dust and dirt. This is quite normal! And if dust and dirt come, what will you do? You will not keep the window closed because of the dust. No, you have to open it so that light and air comes in. And okay, dust and dirt just come in along with it. In this way our body is similar. It is like a house, your body is your temple and our senses, like eyes and ears, they are like windows. And through these windows, our senses we get the negative thoughts in our mind. Actually the window is not made for dust and dirt as our senses are not made for negativity. But the dust also comes in.
What can you do against the dust? Take a vacuum cleaner! Don't be annoyed that you made a window there, it is okay. The only thing is that you have to clean it. We have eyes and ears, we live in this world, negative things will reach us, it is just human. Not only nice things are going on around us. But if something bad comes, don't worry or feel guilty about it. Just sweep it, clean it. Maybe you need to do this daily like taking a shower or eating, remove your negative thoughts and energy daily. This was the first thing that I said in my lecture: How does the negativity come? Through the windows in our body, our senses. We should not worry much about it. When it comes you can be aware of it. You see that it is dusty and dirty. Then you can easily clean it.
That is it! That’s exactly the problem. I judge myself for my negativity which produces more negativity.
If I could just go easier on myself, and treat myself with the same respect I reserve for other people…
I appreciate the story about the window.
I love this analogy, Swami Ji! It is a great illustration of the way it really is. Negative and positive energy float about equally, and when we are open, we experience all of it. One thing I like to practice in meditation is how to stop these negative thoughts right when they start. During meditation when a thought comes up, I say in my head “poof!” and watch the thought disappear into a cloud of smoke…and it’s gone! Then I am back to my peaceful state.
In regular, waking consciousness, we can do that same thing with negative thoughts. When one comes up, just say “poof!” and watch it disappear… then reach for a brighter thought– anything at all… “Roses are beautiful.” And then you are already on the track to thinking positive things. 😀