CHAPTER 5
CAN WE BE
POSITIVE ALL
THE TIME?
FLIP OVER FROM ‘NEP’ TO ‘PEP’!
Life is a choice. We can choose to live with Peace or anxiety. It is up to us. We must realize that a ship doesn't sink because of the water that is around it. It sinks because of the water that gets inside it. All the anxiety around us cannot make us drown in misery. But if we choose to let stress and worry enter our life, it is sure to destroy us. How can one choose to live with Peace and bliss?
Peace is an art. If we don't learn it, then our life can tear apart. It takes effort to make the Monkey within into a Monk. We must consciously choose as we discriminate and use our intellect to develop a strong willpower. Unless we stop the Monkey business, our Mind will continue to produce thoughts that will steal our Peace. How does the Mind work?
The Mind is a thought factory. It produces thoughts. But just like any factory, the thoughts that it produces depends on the raw material that we feed it. If we feed it positive raw material, it will produce positive thoughts, but if we feed it negative raw material, it is impossible for the Mind to think positively. People in this world advocate –'Think Positive!' But not many discover the truth of how we can think positive. Those who do, they learn to flip over from NEP to PEP.
NEP is Negative Energy Poison. It consists of toxic emotions. Emotions like fear, worry, hate, jealousy, anxiety, pessimism, doubt, depression, amongst others. When we feed our Mind with these negative emotions, we create an aura of NEP in our thought factory. It is only natural for such a Mind to constantly produce negative toxic thoughts. These poisonous thoughts steal our Peace. While it is difficult to change the thoughts that the Mind produces, it is easier to feed it with positive emotions.
Kareena had a jealous Mind. She was in love with Shekhar. They were colleagues and had a beautiful, loving relationship. But the NEP of jealously broke it apart. Her Mind would doubt every girl that Shekhar met or talked to. If Shekhar would go for a meeting, she would spy on him. This not only affected her work but eventually made other people uncomfortable as she started gossiping to drive the girls away who were friendly with Shekhar. Her jealousy not only ruined her Peace but ultimately also broke the bond between the two. Shekhar decided not to continue his relationship with Kareena. This destroyed Kareena as it led her into a state of depression.
Steven and Harry were cousins. They enjoyed a friendship that unfortunately caught fire with hate. Steven had reasons to believe that Harry was not devoting his time to their family business, and instead, was working with competitors, which was making their business sink. His negative thoughts towards Harry soon caught steam and became hate. He hated the sight of Harry and it manifested in all his expressions. What did 'hate' do to Steven? It destroyed his tranquillity, all because his Mind permitted hate to rule.
Radha was happily married. She had two children. She was very fond of her neighbour Sudha and started inviting her over. Most unfortunately, Radha's husband fell in love with Sudha and he decided to end their marriage and move on with his new love. Radha was shattered. Her life was filled with tears, worry, and she was anxious about the future. Her Mind was poisoned with thoughts of revenge – she wanted to ruin Sudha. This became the objective of her life. The once innocent Radha now became a slave to revenge, as it made her toss and turn in a tornado of wild thoughts that tormented her and stole her Peace. No doubt there are times in life when the most unfortunate things happen. But what is more unfortunate is our negative attitude that follows as a response to disasters.
In all these cases, the negative poison – jealousy, hate or revenge, is trigged by the Mind. The once happy and Peaceful person becomes a toxic wreck, shivering with anxiety and losing the treasure of Peace. It doesn't end there. Such people continue to regret whatever has happened and this regret becomes a recurring source of misery and sorrow. People all over the world experience these negative poisons because their Mind lets thoughts of NEP appear from the front door of their life just as Peace and tranquillity exit from the back door. Sadly, we let these negative emotions enter our life and ultimately, allow them to rob our Peace.
A positive Mind produces thoughts that arise out of PEP – Positive Energy Power. When we feed our Mind with positive emotions like faith, trust, belief, enthusiasm, courage, confidence, love, forgiveness, and compassion, we are feeding our thought factory with raw material that will produce positive thoughts. This generates a power within that creates Peace.
Ultimately, it is a choice. Whether we create Peace or poison within, depends on whether we feed our Mind with negative or positive emotions. To be peaceful, one must learn to flip from NEP to PEP. Then, one will experience Peace.
You can't just be peaceful and blissful. The Mind by default is a Monkey. It gets attracted to bad news. Unless there is some tragedy, a movie doesn't sell. Would you watch the news if there was nothing sensational? The Mind has become used to feeding on news that involves death and destruction. It gets easily attracted by fear. Therefore, most people live stressful lives. Very few people stay away from all this negativity and live like a Monk with Peace and bliss. It is these people who consciously choose to flip to PEP.
How do you flip from NEP to PEP? Every time the Mind thinks a negative thought, we must consciously eliminate it by feeding it a positive emotion. If a thought of doubt germinates in our Mind, we must not let that thought become a feeling and make us sink into despair. We must feed the Mind with faith. We must learn to trigger faith through self-talk, auto suggestions, or external tools like reading a positive book, repeating a positive phrase, or even singing a happy song. We need that 'flip over' that will cause the change. It is like turning a coin. As we flip the coin over, our thoughts will flip, and we will see transformed energy within. Immediately, we will experience the turmoil disappear as Peace will fill our Mind.
If we want to make the Monkey into a Monk, and our Mind to be full of Peace, we must make this flipping from NEP to PEP a habit. We must consciously forgive when there is a thought of revenge and this will happen if we feed our Mind the raw material of the emotion of forgiveness. Not only will we produce thoughts that will encourage us to forgive but will also produce other positive thoughts. Just like birds of a feather flock together, thoughts of a kind together bind and can leave a poisonous aura behind. Even the thought of hate, worry, fear, anger, revenge, jealousy, can make us so depressed, just as talking about love, faith, optimism, courage, and confidence can cheer us up. But this is an art. It is a choice! It is a habit.
We must constantly flip over from NEP to PEP. Whenever there is NEP, we must flip to PEP. We should not let the poison of negativity remain even for a moment. Because if it does, it will produce toxic thoughts. By flipping over to PEP, we will experience new energy and the power of Peace.
Some people still look up and wonder how one can flip over. There are many ways to live a peaceful life. Neeta used to always wonder why Shyam was blessed with so much Peace while she lived a life of depression. A wise man who met them both, smiled as he chatted with them. Neeta was answering questions about her lifestyle. She told the wise man that she loved horror movies. Every morning, she would read several newspapers and she would never miss the news on television. She was the first one to get breaking news. The books that she read were those of mystery and suspense. Even the food that she ate had a lot of spices and chillies.
Shyam spoke to the wise man and shared with him his quite different lifestyle. He ate simple food and spent time in silence and prayer. He only watched comedies, whether movies or soaps. He stayed away from bad news and avoided reading too much of the newspaper. Even his circle of friends consisted of far more peaceful people and their conversations were more constructive. Neeta's kitty parties had friends that would enjoy not just lunch, but a five-course meal on gossip! When the wise man compared the two, Neeta realized that she was opening the doors of her life to negative emotions. These created NEP and they led her into living a stressed-out life. Thereafter, she made a conscious decision to flip over to PEP and live like Shyam. Just as she flipped her life over, bliss returned as she regained Peace in her life.
We should not wonder how people can remain positive.
We should rather look at the power