by Del Lobo

Created on: May 13, 2010

Keep negative thoughts out

Mary, my meditation teacher, bless her soul, once said to the class :

'tell me students, if you heard a knock at your front door, opened it and saw someone less than desirable there. would you let them in your home?'

'Of course not!' Rachel said.

'Well then, if an undesirable thought entered your mind, would you not want to keep it out?' Mary smiled at us.

Ever since then, it's been a conscious practice to replace a negative thought with a positive one.  This is not always easy because the number of times in one day that undesirable thoughts enter this mind are quite unsurmountable.  When we judge, criticize, ridicule, all of those thoughts are quite undesirable and have a negative impact on both, ourselves as well as the person/people we are directing those thoughts towards.

You might ask, how can one avoid these types of thoughts because they are taking place quite unconsciously, I have to say that we have to makea very conscious effort.  I can share my practice with you and also tell you of the positive effect it has had on my life since the beginning of the practice and continues to bear fruit.

When I first began the practice, I was employed in a fast-paced laboratory wth clients and personnel breathing down my back.  Everyone wanted test results pronto without giving consideration for the time it took to prepare and run the tests, leave alone the well-being of the staff.  People around me were getting ill and taking long-term leave.  There was something very negative happening in the lab.  My own mental health and well-being was in jeopardy.  This is when I decided to pay heed to the negative thoughts that entered my mind and quickly replace them with a positive one.

For example, if I mentally thought a bad word to describe the client, I would replace the word with 'angel' 'cherub' 'sweetness'!  In the beginning it was funny.  A thought would go something like this 'what an angel he is for expecting a miracleout of me'!  One day, I must have mentally said things like this about 50 times.  That evening, I was removing my lab coat and my boss walked up to me.  He said 'I just got a call from a client praising the lab for the work they do.  He particularly mentioned your name'!  My co-workers looked up in shock and my mouth hung open.  This was truly a first.  For the months before this, we had heard nothing but complaints.  I smiled to myself.

Since then, the practice has become almost second nature to me.  The benefits are plenty.  I have since retired with wonderful memories and the friends I have left behind are friends forever.  I constantly meet people who are kind and generous.  I seem to attract many positive things into my life.  I cannot help think it is because I put out 'positive'!  I wish the same for you.

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