A Guided Meditation to Heal From Negative Thoughts

Whether we are aware of them or not, we all have negative thoughts that, on a subconscious and unconscious level, stir up stress and tension within our mind and body. In fact, when we are not aware of them, uncomfortable thoughts can easily become repressed, suppressed, and denied.

While stuffing them down may be preferable to dealing with them, from a holistic perspective, these disturbing thoughts can turn into chronic stress, which may manifest as everything from chronic pain to cancer. But there is a way to heal from negative thoughts.

Just like time heals all wounds, distancing ourselves from thoughts heals us from the destructive nature of negative thoughts. When we think our thoughts, we experience the heavy drama of them. When we can view them from a distance, we can see them objectively, clearly, and impartially.

 

Begin by Finding Comfort

Find a comfortable chair or sit on the ground if that’s comfortable and relaxing. Or prop your head up in bed with a couple of pillows. Just get comfortable. Sink into your seat.

Close your eyes.

Slow down your breathing. Deepen it into your belly.

Breathe in through the nose and out through the nose. Allow yourself to relax as deeply into your seat as you can. Relax all the muscles in your forehead and your eyebrows, your cheeks and your lips.

Drop your shoulders a bit more and loosen them up. Relax your back as well. Just let every muscle in your body sink deeper.

 

Breath Awareness

Put all of your attention on your breath. Feel the cool air come in as your nostrils flare a little, bristling by your nose hairs, coming down the back of your throat, filling your lungs, expanding your belly, and then coming back out.

As you take your next inhale, fill up your lungs again. Then allow your belly to sink and contract.

Feel the warm air leaving your lungs, coming up the back of your mouth through your nostrils. Feel that warm air brushing by your nose hairs and upper lip. The more you relax and allow your mind and body to become still, the more subtle sensations will arise, and the more we will raise our conscious awareness.

And as your mind drifts off to thoughts that may be uncomfortable or disturbing, notice a tendency for your muscles to contract and stiffen. Notice how we may get those stress lines in our face. Then simply relax and let all those thoughts and all that tension out with your next exhale.

Breathe in that cool, healing oxygen and let it fill your body. Let your blood carry that rich oxygen to every cell of your body. With each exhale, let go of whatever has been weighing on you. With each inhale, breathe in peaceful, healing oxygen.

When thoughts arise, let them arise. Don’t resist them. Don’t fight them. Don’t judge them as negative or bad. Just witness them.

 

Witness Thoughts Without Resistance

Notice the space surrounding your thoughts as you simply witness and let them be. Notice a peaceful energy that surrounds them when you accept them for what they are, the thinking mind, that great survival tool always looking for danger, always thinking of fears and worries. Just let them be.

Notice how they arise and fall away, come and go like waves of the ocean, coming in and going out. Nothing to hold on to. Nothing to fight against. With each inhale they come in peacefully, and with each exhale, we let them go.

With each inhale, oxygen comes in, that life-sustaining energy. With each exhale, we let it go. We’re born with each inhale. We die with each exhale. And each moment brings a chance to be present and aware, to be reborn, to let go of anything that doesn’t serve us, and to welcome new beginnings.

We let go of the past, any trauma, any story we’re telling ourselves, and we welcome the newness, the freshness of each moment. Grasping at nothing and resisting nothing, we hear that oceanic quality of our breath. And we allow it to soothe us, calm us, and relax us. Just like the ocean, there’s really no difference in the sound of the ocean and our own internal power to heal.

 

When the Mind Wanders

And as our minds begin to wander, as they inevitably will, we just observe. It’s totally natural. We watch those thoughts come and go, leaping from one thought to the next, maybe thinking about a stressful situation that happened today or yesterday, or a difficult memory from the past. Maybe we’re worried about the future.

Or maybe we find meditation very difficult and boring, and it’s yelling at us to do anything else.

And we simply and calmly, peacefully, and even joyfully, with a small smile on our face, as we become wiser to the nature of these stories in our head, let them go with our exhale. There’s nothing to figure out right now. There’s nothing to solve. There’s nothing to plan. There’s nothing to ruminate on at all right now.

This is the time to bring peace and stillness into our day and into our lives. To create space around the negative stories we’re clinging to so they can no longer disturb our inner state. We don’t fight them, we don’t believe in them, we simply witness them and allow them to be. The more we witness without reacting, the more we overcome them.

 

Becoming the Witness

We don’t fear our thoughts. We give them space. We distance ourselves from destructive emotions without forcing them out, which only creates more stress. We simply watch as the silent witness, our true identity, the watcher of thoughts, the witness of life, the experiencer of existence.

As you focus on your breath, notice thoughts as they arise. Don’t be afraid to look closely at them. Normally, in our busy lives, when negative or scary thoughts come in, we want to turn away and distract ourselves.

But here, in calm meditation, we are safe. We can look at them and notice they are just stories of the past, a past that no longer exists and cannot control us when we remain present. We can explore these thoughts and realize nothing about them was too unbearable or too scary to face.

 

Seeing Through Compassion

As thoughts arise of someone who hurt us or a difficult situation, meditate on this: if we had that person’s brain, life experience, and body, we would act the same way. Their trauma, what they were taught or not taught, shaped them. They could not have acted differently.

We are all living out our karma — cause and effect. Every moment led to this one. Even if we don’t know all causes, we understand the nature of cause and effect. Underneath these bodies and minds, we are all one lifeforce, one consciousness, threads in the same cosmic cloth.

As we become mindful of our inhale and present with our exhale, we break free from past conditioning. We heal from our stresses and traumas. We create new possibilities with presence so we don’t pass on trauma, we transmute it into love, peace, and joy.

Love is the medicine for the mind, not romantic love, but love for life, for the universe, for self.

 

Loving the Inner Child

As difficult emotions arise, hold them in your mind and surround them with love. Love them like a troubled child — your inner child. A child heals with love. As hard as it may be to love our battle scars, we must be tender and compassionate with ourselves first.

Never judge the past based on what you know today. Love your past self. Forgive your past self and others. Recognize the shared consciousness within all of us.

Breathe in love and light and let it fill your heart and body. Breathe out negativity and resentment, it only poisons us now.

See yourself as a body of light and love, no dark corners. With each inhale, you get brighter. With each exhale, you free yourself more from afflictive thoughts and emotions.

 

Closing

Now let all the oxygen out. Empty your lungs. Hold for a moment. Then take a deep, slow inhale, filling your lungs and belly completely. Hold briefly. Exhale through an open mouth.

Slowly open your eyes, as slowly as you can and bring this peaceful awareness into your waking life and the rest of your day.

These 5 Minutes Could Shift Your Whole Week

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