My mind can easily go in a negative direction. Lately, I have
addressed that problem by praying in my mind. And my prayers in this
case have not been me complaining to God about my situation, for that is
negative thinking. Nor, on the contrary, have they been me trying to
reassure myself with positive thoughts that I do not truly believe.
Rather, I have been asking God to fill me with love, joy, and peace. I
have been asking him to bless me. I have been asking him to help me not
to despise certain people. When my mind turns to my flaws and I begin
to feel hopeless, I ask God to help me to be a better person in the
areas that are perplexing me. And I have prayed for others, too, when
their needs and desires have come to my attention. Some of my requests
are pretty outrageous, but, hey, I’m putting the ball in God’s court!
Maybe he’ll answer as I want, and maybe he won’t! My goal is mainly to
get through the day without feeling rage or depression. Prayer has
enabled me to interrupt my negative thoughts and to replace them with
some hope, or (when I pray for others) love.
So far, so good! Or at least, so far, not so bad! There are times
when more heavy-duty prayer is needed: when I need to go to my room,
close the door, and speak my prayer aloud for ten minutes, maybe
longer. These are times when there is a lingering bitterness inside of
me that is not necessarily being caused by thoughts that are in the
forefront of my mind. It is just there, in the background, sowing its
seeds of discontent. In those times, I need to take a time-out and
interrupt my bitterness with prayer. I need to tell God—-aloud, so that
my prayer is focused and is the main object of my attention at the
moment—-what it is that is bothering me. But, in times when my mind is
just wandering and moves in a negative direction, I find that just
interrupting my thoughts with prayers of request has worked. Or at
least it has for the past week.
There is a place for talking things out with others, too. I am not
as comfortable doing so, maybe because I fear being judged, or I fear
being told that nothing is wrong when there is, or I fear hearing
certain advice that in the past I have not found particularly helpful.
But one reason that talking things out with others has worked for me in
the past (at least sometimes) is that it allows me to put some things
into perspective: I am not a bad person just because I am struggling
with a social encounter, the other person is not bad either, here are
some suggestions on what I can do, here is a better way to see the
situation, I am not alone in my struggles because others have them too,
etc.
I am not suggesting these ideas as a cure-all for everybody. I am
just sharing what I have done. If it resonates with you, I am happy.
If it does not, I hope and pray that you find your own way to cope with
yourself and the world around you, if you have not already.