200 – How do we manage our negativity?

Negativity comes in all shades and colors. We have negative feelings, reactions, and emotions. Negativity makes us more angry and unreasonable. It overtakes us and it is very difficult to remember at that time, that we could turn it into a positive thought, feeling or emotion.

Transforming the negative response into a productive response is called pratipaksha bhavana. Swami Sivananda was an exponent of pratipaksha bhavana. Pratipaksha means opposite and bhavana means cultivation. A practical exercise is to work with a violent or vicious thought. Just these words make us flinch.

The practice to deal with negativity

However, many of us have had a series of traumatic and disturbing experiences. Now we rewrite them on the screen of our mind, the chidakasha. It is possible to practice Chidakasha Dharana. We have to sit in a comfortable position with our eyes closed. We become aware of our breath, our spontaneous breathing. Next when we inhale, we visualize the breath going in through both nostrils and meeting at the eyebrow center. When we exhale we visualize the breath descending from the eyebrow center and going out through both nostrils. This is triangular breathing. Practice 27 times, counting backwards. No errors to be made or repeat the counting process.

Trikuti Sadhana

This technique is called trikuti sadhana and it works on the ajna chakra, which is the center of our past, present and future memories. Watch the chidakasha now, it is the blank space behind our eyebrow center. Take an angry emotion, play it out. Now change it into a positive emotion. Do it several times. You will notice that each time it becomes less upsetting and then you are able to put it away. It ceases to affect you. This sadhana can now be used every time you have feelings of hostility, jealousy, envy, or rage.

It is not easy to immediately transform our feelings, but the awareness is powerful and enabling.

Aim Hrim Klim

 

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