Here are four common ways that people try to eliminate reactive emotions & negative thoughts:

Suppression.

This works for about three minutes—or as long as you can hold back the tidal wave of energy that’s building up in your mind and body. Then, the emotions and thoughts erupt with even greater intensity.

Logic.

Nice try. Reactive emotions and negative thoughts laugh in the face of logic, and this includes so-called spiritual logic (“Well, it’s just karma.” “I’ll just be detached.” “It’s all for the best.”) Logic doesn’t have the power to transform reactive emotions or negative thoughts.

Chocolate.

Or chips. Or ice cream. Using substances can numb you to the impact of reactive emotions and negative thoughts—but it doesn’t change, much less transform them. In fact, they feed on the self-loathing that follows.

Exercise.

Well, it’s definitely healthier. After a sweaty yoga class or gym workout, the endorphin high is liberating. But, it’s not always possible to stop in the middle of your day to assume a downward dog pose or do jumping jacks.

Suppression, logic, chocolate and exercise won’t transform your reactive emotions and negative thoughts. For transformation, you need a method that doesn’t rely on force, control, logic or numbing out. You need one that works with the basic energy of emotion & thought directly.

Because you can’t get rid of emotions.

They’re part of the basic energy of life.

The goal is to transform the energy of negative emotions into sources of life-enriching creativity. This is what mantra meditation is specifically designed to do.

You can’t solve a problem at the same level of consciousness at which it was created.

Einstein said that.

It means that you can’t solve your emotional reactivity at the level of emotion, and you can’t resolve negative thoughts at the level of thought.

You need to move to a deeper, more primary level of consciousness. That level of consciousness is available through mantra meditation.

It’s so simple and so powerful that it’s hard to believe.

Fortunately, you don’t have to rely on belief. The proof is in the practice. That’s why these mantras have been cherished, preserved and handed down from practitioner to practitioner for thousands of years.

You can verify the power of this method in your own experience. Which, of course, means practice.

Mantra isn’t a magic pill.

This isn’t a secret formula that will do the transforming work for you. You have to do the practice. Which means devoting at least 10 minutes a day to your freedom. This seems reasonable.

Yet, many people balk at this modest commitment.

This traps them in their ever-more familiar emotional roller coaster. Freedom is a choice between learning this joyful practice or repeating the emotional patterns of the past.

You don’t have to give up chocolate, exercise or even logic when you practice mantra meditation. You don’t even have to give up suppression…it just falls away on its own.And, here’s a secret: chocolate tastes even more delicious when you eat it from the state of freedom.

Are you ready to really enjoy that chocolate?

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Editor: Emily Bartran

Photo: Corali Cros/Flickr