By Santanu Rahman
Listen, I’m not talking all fluffy new-age hippy dippy stuff. I’m not talking about quieting your mind, and be in perfect harmony.
Nice ideals, but UNREALISTIC!
Look. Life is a constant battle, especially when you’re trying to improve yourself.
Yes, you do have to believe in yourself. 100%. I am all about that. Use positive language, affirmations, gratitudes, visualizations of you attaining your goal, and all that. That is important work. BUT IT DOES NOT STOP THERE.
When you are in a moment where you are NOT taking the action steps or find yourself resisting the action steps to improving yourself, you need to yell at yourself. That’s right, you heard me. You need to argue with yourself. Ask yourself why you are not taking action. Have a hard talk with yourself about your lack of action.
And then, count 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….and then leap to action.
So balancing out affirmations and hard talks with yourself - the practice of both of these are fundamental, and a regular practice of it can bring balance to you. You know that being positive is important. But you also understand that you have to have some negative energy in there to hold yourself accountable during the tough times.
My take on the quieting the mind meditation concept is to do that if you have an abundance of negative thoughts, fears, anxiety, and doubts overwhelming your mind space. Thinking positively is important, but if you’re flooded with fear-rooted thoughts and emotions, you may have to go through a period of STFU’ing, aka quieting the mind, before you can let genuine positive thoughts in.
Believe in yourself, but hold yourself accountable. Praise and encourage yourself, but be ready to yell at yourself.
This is the Yin-Yang of the 21st century.