There is a well known Henry Ford quote, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” This statement tends to lead people in the direction of positive thinking and create superstition about negative thoughts. I speak with people who work very hard at trying to maintain their positive thinking. It can take a lot of time and effort. I used to be one of those people. I spent lots of time trying to manage and fix my thinking and it never ultimately worked. I was never able to banish my negative thought. This led me to feel constantly disappointed in myself whenever I was in a low mood or a negative mindset. I felt like I was doing something wrong.
Now I see all of the work I did to banish and reframe my negative thinking was like me getting a cold and working really hard to get rid of the cold as if it was a terrible thing by taking numerous supplements and doing all kinds of healing strategies and techniques. And then heal from the cold after five days instead of three because I didn’t let myself to relax and allow the intelligence within my body to do what it knows to do.
If I don’t see the cold as a problem and understand my symptoms are a reflection of the health of my body, I feel at peace and relaxed in the experience of my body healing itself. I may get an inner prompting to eat something or take something, but that is very different than my focused intent on trying to get rid of my cold.
Negative thoughts and negative feelings are part of our innate mental health. They give us feedback about our state of mind. They are not anything to worry about. They don’t mean anything about you. They don’t need to be fixed. There is nothing to heal. They are part of the normal, healthy human mental and emotional ecosystem. They do not get in the way of our success. They do not have any intrinsic power to jinx us and mess up our lives. The power is always within us and not in the content of our thinking.
If you become less fascinated by the content of all of your thoughts and more interested in the infinite source from which all thoughts arise, it becomes clear that there is nothing to fear when it comes to our thoughts and our feelings. They all arise from the same formless source of infinite potential that is your true nature. No thought can take that away from you. No matter how much you run with and engage with your negative thinking you cannot damage or destroy who you are.
What I find when I see my thoughts for what they are, ephemeral and always changing, I am much less concerned about the content of them especially when it is dark. I am less likely to make more meaning up like my negative thinking means something about me, my future, or what I am capable of. It doesn’t matter if the thoughts are memories or future imagining. They are not rooted in anything.
So what about creation? Don’t I need to believe I can to get something done?
I don’t think so. The energy of creation is what thoughts are made of it is not the content of the thoughts. I have done plenty of things in my life that I did not believe myself capable of doing, but there was a forward movement within me that carried me forward. I didn’t believe I could finish my thesis and I did. Not only did I complete it I was amazed by what I wrote. I didn’t think I could write a weekly blog, but I do. I didn’t think I could stay married, but I am. I didn’t think I could have a business I love that makes money but I do. If I had spent my time trying to fix my thinking and working on my beliefs none of this would probably have happened. For two reasons:
- I wouldn’t have any energy left over to get anything done.
- My trying to change or fix my negative thoughts only makes them look more real and problematic. It gives them a power they do not have on their own.
Sometimes you will feel positive. Sometimes you will feel negative. Sometimes you will feel confident and other times you will feel insecure. That doesn’t matter. Your thoughts and feelings are like the weather. They come and they go. Your true nature, the divine intelligence that is behind all things doesn’t care how you feel or what you think. It just wants to express. The dandelion will find a crack and grow through concrete. The city of Chernobyl has been taken over by the forest even with the radioactivity. The life force finds a way to express. The more you allow it and don’t worry about managing yourself the more space there is for your impersonal nature to come through.
It doesn’t matter whether you think you can or you can’t. Do what you want to do. Create what you are inspired to create. Allow your unique expression to be seen in the world in whatever form you are inspired express it. You are the field of infinite possibility. Look in that direction and allow your heart to sing whatever song comes through.
If you would like to listen to the Rewilding Love Podcast, it comes out in serial format. Start with Episode 1 for context. Click here to listen. And, if you would like to dive deeper into the understanding I share along with additional support please check out the Rewilding Community.
Rohini Ross is co-founder of “The Rewilders.” Listen to her podcast, with her partner Angus Ross, Rewilding Love. They believe too many good relationships fall apart because couples give up thinking their relationship problems can’t be solved. In this season of the Rewilding Love Podcast, Rohini and Angus help a couple on the brink of divorce due to conflict. Angus and Rohini also co-facilitate private couples' intensives that rewild relationships back to their natural state of love. Rohini is also the author of the ebook Marriage, and she and Angus are co-founders of The 29-Day Rewilding Experience and The Rewilding Community. You can follow Rohini on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To learn more about her work and subscribe to her blog visit: TheRewilders.org.